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Movie Monday: Transformers Still the Boss

The mighty machine that is Transformers: Dark of the Moon, rumbled, bumbled and stumbled its way to another box office victory, crushing Horrible Bosses and a wayward Zookeeper along the way like so much aluminum foil. The Michael Bay (at right) boomfest pounded its way to another $47 million, vaulting its overall take to $261 million and making it 2011’s biggest money-maker thus far.

The R-rated Horrible Bosses didn’t do horribly at the box office: Jennifer Aniston’s raunch-com micromanaged its way to a $28.1 million paycheck and second place. According to Time’s Richard Corliss, Horrible becomes the fourth straight R-rated comedy to outperform initial expectations (Bridesmaids, The Hangover Part II and Bad Teacher are the others). If 2010 was a great year for animation, 2011 may be the year of the cover-your-eyes-and-ears-and-run-for-the-door comedy.

Zookeeper, the PG flick starring Kevin James, earned $21 million to slide into third place, which just goes to show that talking animals aren’t quite the draw they once were. Wait, were they ever?

You gotta figure, though, that Transformers won’t push for a three-peat of its box office crown. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 will fly to more than 4,200 theaters come Friday, with Disney’s G-rated Winnie The Pooh tagging along.

Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.