Friday Box Office - Transformers grosses $36.7 million
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen got a solid 25% Friday bump, starting out the Fri-Sun portion of its opening weekend with $36.7 million. In just three days (Wed-Fri), the truly terrible robot sequel has amassed a whopping $125.9 million. This will sadly place the movie at number four for the biggest three-days in history. Ahead of it are only The Dark Knight ($158.4 million), Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($135.6 million), and just ahead of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith ($124.2 million).
It's increasingly likely that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will come frighteningly close to the $200 million five-day total that it's been chasing. If it can pull in $36 million today, it will beat out Spider-Man 3's $161 million four-day gross for the second-highest four-day total of all time. Word of mouth is seemingly having little effect, even as everyone I've talked to seems to hate it as much as I did. Heck, the word is so lousy that Paramount has seemingly taken to sending out mass fake-Twitter blurbs raving about the film. At the very least, it will all but certainly end Sunday as the third of fourth-highest grossing film of 2009, behind Up and Star Trek, and possibly Monsters Vs. Aliens.
As front loading became more and more prevalent over the years, we've seen the 'quick kill blockbuster' reach bigger and bigger heights. We've gone, in 1994, from a $100 million+ blockbuster that no one liked (The Flintstones) to now, a likely $400 million+ blockbuster that no one actually enjoyed. What this means is that, as big as these numbers are, this really isn't much of a story in the grand scheme of things. When summer 2009 ends, people will be talking about Star Trek, Up, The Hangover, and a few others that open in the next two months (Bruno, Funny People, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, etc). This is not the first time that the summer champ was not the most-liked film. At the end of summer 2000, people were remembering not the box office champion Mission: Impossible 2, but rather Gladiator, Scary Movie, and X-Men.
Her Sister's Keeper, the official counter programming for the weekend, opened with about $5 million, so that's somewhat good news for the Nicholas Sparks-written, Cameron Diaz-starring weepie. Anyway, I'll talk about the other movies when the weekend numbers roll in. By tomorrow (if not today), Up will have surpassed Star Trek as the year's highest grossing movie (a title it will keep until Wednesday at the latest), and The Hangover will have surpassed There's Something About Mary. So there's that going for us. Sigh...
For a detailed analysis of the previous box office days for Transformers 2, go to the Wednesday report and the Thursday report at Mendelson's Memos.
Scott Mendelson
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I went and saw the movie today in IMAX and loved it. Personally i think one should not review this movie unless they see it in IMAX, because it really does change the viewing experience. I know this personally because last year i saw Dark Knight in IMAX and was blown away. I saw it again in a regular theater and was bored during the movie. I think critics get too caught up in critiquing a film, that they forget to sometimes just sit back forget about the story line and just watch stuff blow up.
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That was just the problem for me (my actual review is also on this site). There was too much boring human story and not nearly enough robots beating the heck out of each other. Give me robot action that actually makes sense, give me a whole movie where every action scene is as good as the forest showdown, and I'll cut the movie a little more slack. Conversely, if the plot makes sense and the characters are interesting, not every action scene needs to be a wonder. Transformers 2 had neither a compelling storyline and interesting characters, OR quality action scenes that we theoretically paid to see in the first place. I'll take either/or in a film based on an action figure toy line.
I agree. This movie was a total and unmitigated piece of crap. And no, it's not that I'm expecting too much of a light summer blockbuster. Star Trek & Wolverine were both great. I just happen to like my movies GOOD.
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Wow... Transformers 2 is so terrible that it makes X-Men Origins: Wolverine look good? That's a pull quote that won't be on the DVD box.
Nobody is going to remember "The Hangover".
I am. Far better movie than the big steaming pile that is Transformers 2.
I saw the movie and it was great. I am black and the 2 characters the critics are talking about was not offensive they was funny. Did not see the stereo type, then again its a movie. I watched it for the action and I loved transformers as a kid shoot I own the original transformers movie. I want to see it again and again its better than the first movie to me. If you want something deep and with meaning you do not need to go see this movie but if you want to laugh and like action and want to get away from life and thinking and just get lost in the imagination of the movie then its the movie for you
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While I disagree in that I found the movie boring and unentertaining, I'm thrilled to actually get some feedback re- the robot twins, from some actual, I dunno, African American filmgoers. I made a point not to harp on it in my review (I found them to be potentially racists stereotypical caricatures... the end), as it's not my job as a balding, white, Jewish film critic to get over offended at potentially offensive black imagery. It's certainly true that people not in an allegedly offended group often go out of their way to be offended to show off their (often false) solidarity. It annoys me too every time some famouns white and/or conservative Christian goes nuts when someone famous makes an offensive, but funny, Holocaust/Nazi joke. Aside from the 20-something African American male who was sitting next to me at the screening, stonefaced and displeased from the second-act onward, I have yet to hear/read any reaction to the would-be racist robot twins from any actual BLACK PEOPLE. Thanks for the input.
Great. I liked it.
Thats really good. That means this movie will be around a LONG..LONG time.
So Years from now people will see how we as a culture sat in quiet theaters
and laughed, smiled, screamed; thereby giving tacit approval to ugly demeaning
.....racial stereotypes.
The two robots Skids and Mudflap meant to provide comic relief and to appeal to
kids are a manifestation of attitudes that still exist in Hollywood, They are also
indicative that there was minimal diversity along the decision making food chain for this film.
The thing about movies is that until people make the shift to same day release at home you are going to get more chase movies than complicated human dramas. A movie like this, if released so you could watch it at home on the same day as the theater would have made similar money, maybe a little less. But if you could have watched Her Sisters Keeper at home on Friday night or Sunday afternoon this weekend? I bet it would make 50 million at least.
J
I liked it. I can be as movie snobby as the next guy but I actually liked it. Would I see it again, probably not. Was it a decent escapist flick, yeah. If you want emotional depth then go see Her sisters keeper I hear it is fantastic. I mean is The Taking of Pelham 123 a better movie, probably, look at the actors. But it wasn't bad. Tons of good trailers, got to see the long version of New Moon, Half Blood Prince and GI Joe. I enjoyed myself.
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Fair enough :-)
It would appear that the critics are wrong again. Most critics have been around long enough to know what their tastes are and to do the opposite of what they recommend.
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opening weekend has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with marketing. Transformers 2 opened as well as it did because it was marketed in a saturation style, it was the kind of movie that was eagerly anticipated as a theatrical experience, and people genuinely enjoyed the first film. If it doesn't collapse next weekend, then you can say that it is popular and well-liked.
I dont neceassarily agree with that, because a lot of movies are marketed just as much as Transformers 2 was and collapse in the opening weekend. Theres a reason why Transformers 2 will pull in 200+ million in the opening weekend. Bruno will be coming out shortly and i am expecting a big turn out not because it is well marketed but because the majority of the viewers will find it entertaining. It will mostly be the critics in the end of that movie who will call it homophobic and that it has no taste.
Well, the truth of the matter appears to be that the theatrical movie business (movies released in theaters) is now almost the exclusive realm of theme park/comic book movies plus the occasional lowbrow comedy and (or course) animation for the kids with banal, conventionally "uplifting" themes and fast food morals. There's a theory that the female audience will always keep romcoms alive (Sandra Bullock did win last weekend, after all), but even they appear to be on life support. The problem is that the releasing (advertising) costs are so high that unless a movie has a total box office of something like fifty million in the U.S., it's not worth it. It used to be the expensive theatrical release would be a loss leader to push the video (VHS and now DVD and pay download) revenue, but DVD has been at best just holding on for the last several years, and online revenue is not yet catching up. Big dramas with major stars? They will soon be in the same boat. So everything except theme park pics and low-brow comedies will soon be the domain of cable. But cable is a medium of series and miniseries, not standalone features. And that's the whole story.
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Alas, breaks my heart, but you're dead on. Of course, dealing with the poor behavior of moviegoers would probably help too.
In all seriousness, has anyone who doesn't like the current movie offerings ever tried to write a better one in order to not only get something they like but also to show everyone they're not simply self-righteous fanboys? I started writing my own stuff after seeing DEMOLITION MAN and thinking "Wow, the first five minutes of this could be a movie all by itself."
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You're right... the pre-credits sequence of Demolition Man was dynamite (the rest of the movie is pretty good too, although it hasn't aged all that well). How did said screenplay turn out?
Questionable, as I was working from that useless Syd Field book SCREENPLAY which failed to provide formatting guidelines, but we really can't expect much from a 20-year-old writing his first summer blockbuster. I kept it as backstory for my first book, and am trying to rewrite it now that I know what I'm doing.
McDonalds makes more money than Chez Panisse; yet we somehow understand that popularity and income have nothing to do with quality in restaurants. More people go to carnivals and amusement parks than museums, etc etc. Tut-tutting over quality movies and television shows that don't make as much money is a waste of time and energy.
Oh well. Look on the bright side: any Oscar nominations will be limited to stuff like sound, while serious nominations will go to indie films released at the end of the year.
I am a 51 year old who has been a lifelong fan of movies, truly love them, and I can't remember a more dispiriting, lackluster period than now as far as the quality of films out there goes. Its really depressing and "Transformers 2" is just the tip of the iceberg.
It's funny how only one of those movies at the top of the box office in 3-day totals is actually good.
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