While
Transfrormers: Dark of the Moon, arguably the best entry in the giant-robots-
smashing-stuff franchise, was destined to be a hit, the question always remained – how big a
hit? After all, this is the third in the series and the first to utilize 3D, a technology that
consumers are cooling to and critics are reacting violently against. Well, no one should have
been worried. It was huge.
How huge? Well, it's the biggest Fourth of July opening of all time, putting a metal-tipped cap
in the ass of
Spider-Man 2
, which made $88.2 million.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon took in $97.4 for the
three day weekend, $115 for the four-day holiday, and a whopping $180 million since its
release last Wednesday. (Internationally, it's already racked up a global total of $400 million.)
Both Paramount and proponents of 3D are breathing a huge sigh of relief, though, as the
amount of tickets sold in 3D hovered around 60%. I talked to an expert on the subject over
the weekend and he said if the percentage had dipped close to 40% then it would have been
"disastrous" for the continued survival of 3D. Many of you who read and comment on this
column take issue with my repeated statements about how people are losing interest in 3D,
but it's fundamentally true – more tickets were purchased for the flat
Pirates of the
Caribbean than the 3D version, and pre-sales for the forthcoming
Harry Potter
opus have skewered heavily towards the non-3D iteration. So whether you like it or not, 3D
is on the steep decline, and
Transformers looks like it will be the exception and not
the rule.
Speaking of steep declines,
Cars
2, the first genuinely disappointing Pixar movie, dropped a whopping 60% this
weekend. (Earlier estimates indicated that number could be closer to 70%.) It was still
enough to net it the #2 spot, with $26.5 million over the three-day weekend and $33 million
over the four-day holiday. Still, I'm sure it sold a lot of pajamas.
The other big openings this weekend didn't exactly bring in the big bucks, either. Universal's
Larry Crowne,
starring Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks (who also co-wrote and directed), flopped in fourth with
$14 million over the weekend and $16 million for the holiday. This isn't exactly surprising,
since it was an ambitious stab at counter programming, the commercials and trailers didn't
tell you anything about the movie (except that it was hopelessly upbeat), and that the movie
itself is pretty lousy. Something tells me, though, that it won't tarnish either superstar's
reputation much (Hanks has already finished shooting one highbrow literary adaptation and
has another one to go this year).
Monte Carlo, from
Fox, a tween wish fulfillment fantasy, debuted at #6 with $7.5 million for the weekend and
$9 million for the holiday. But it was probably pretty cheap and should handily recoup its
losses.
And we close the report this week with a couple of milestones – first off, the great
Bridesmaids became,
with its $154 million total gross ($3.8 million this weekend for the ninth spot), the highest-
grossing Judd Apatow production EVER as well as being the top grossing female-led R-rated
comedy ever, beating out the unctuous
Sex and the City movie. You go girls!
Also, even though it's not even present in the top 10 this weekend, Disney's
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, crossed the global $1 billion mark,
only the eighth film in cinema history to do so. (And, impressively, the third Disney movie to
do so in the last 18 months.) People love pirates! I wouldn't be surprised if, next month, at
the D23 Expo, Disney announces a fifth
Pirates movie. They really want Tim Burton
to come onboard, but that seems like a dream at this point. But hey, you never know.
- #1 Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Paramount) - $97.4 million
- #2 Cars 2 (Disney) - $26.5 million
- #3 Bad Teacher (Sony) - $14.5 million
- #4 Larry Crowne (Universal) - $13 million
- #5 Super 8 (Paramount) - $9.7 million
- #6 Monte Carlo (Fox) - $7.5 million
- #7 Green Lantern (Warner Bros) - $6.6 million
- #8 Mr. Popper's Penguins (Fox) - $5.4 million
- #9 Bridesmaids (Universal) - $3.8 million
- #10 Midnight in Paris (Sony) - $3.7 million