You can’t keep a good machine down.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon flew down to earth and claimed everything it saw for its own clanky empire. The numbers are a little confusing, what with the film opening last Tuesday and with a Fourth of July holiday thrown into the mix. But in short, the Transformers breakdown goes like this:
— $97.4 million in North America for the traditional Friday-through-Sunday weekend, making it the biggest weekend of 2011 (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was the previous champ, at $90.2 million)
— $116.4 million when you lump in Independence Day receipts, torching the previous Fourth of July record (that’d be Spider-Man 2′s $88.2 million way back in 2004)
— $181.1 million since Transformers opening Tuesday night, with about three-fifths of that take coming from 3-D screenings.
Oh, and let’s not forget how Dark of the Moon performed overseas—$235 million all told, for a total six-day worldwide north of the $400 million mark.
But as impressive as Dark of the Moon’s numbers were, there was, ahem, a dark side for its makers. For one thing, it didn’t crack $100 million domestically over the weekend (understandable, perhaps, given that its biggest fans flocked to the theater well before Friday). For another, Dark of the Moon is pacing well behind Transformers’ second film, Revenge of the Fallen, which also opened early in the week and still scorched its way to a $109 million weekend in 2009. And that’s without 3-D screens to boost its bottom line. Attendance for Dark of the Moon is trending far below both Revenge and Spider-Man 2, according to Time, and even 15% lower than the original Transformers movie.
One thing that remained fairly consistent was critical incredulity over the popularity of the Transformers franchise. Plugged In reviewer Meredith Whitmore was fairly dismissive of the film from both an artistic and ethical point of view (as were most other critics). But none of that meant much. The CGI spectacle proved, once again, that there’s nothing moviegoers like better over the Fourth of July than fireworks.
Transformers‘ turbo-powered performance throttled the competition, making every other movie practically an afterthought. Cars 2 drove to another $26.2 million during the traditional Friday-Sunday time frame to coast into second place, while Cameron Diaz’ Bad Teacher scored $14.5 million for third. The Tom Hanks/Julia Roberts romcom Larry Crowne, one of two other new releases that dared to challenge Dark of the Moon, managed $13.1 million and a fourth-place finish. The other new entrant, Selena Gomez’ Monte Carlo, earned $7.4 million for sixth place, one slot behind Super 8.
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