The most profitable movie of 2006

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" sold a boatload of DVDs and took in a treasure trove at the box office, but it was merely the runner-up to a cartoon when it came to making money last year.

In a report released Thursday, Kagan Research called "Ice Age: The Meltdown" the most profitable widely released movie of 2006, estimating its cost at $256.4 million and revenue for all release windows at $1.1 billion. When the latter is divided by the former, the result is 4.11, which Kagan calls its Kagan Profitability Index.

Fox's "Ice Age" bests Kagan's No. 2 pick "Pirates," which sports a 3.93 KPI. Kagan puts costs at $423.8 million and revenue at $1.7 billion for Disney's "Pirates."