Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:"Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" decimated the Independence Day weekend box office records, delivering a massive $115.9 million 4-day weekend, which raised it's 6-day cumulative gross to an impressive $180.7 million in domestic figures. Even more impressive is the worldwide haul of the third film in Michael Bay's extraordinarily successful "Transformers" franchise, with figures climbing up to $418 million thus far.
As thrilled as Paramount is with those figures, this third "Transformers" is tracking rather significantly behind the sequel "...Revenge Of The Fallen", which had grossed more than $214 domestic in its first 6 days. When factoring in the initial film in the series in 2007, Michael Bay's "Transformers" films have grossed just under $2 billion worldwide. That figure will be passed imminently.
With most entities aggregating 4-day weekend totals, the 3-day figures on a typical Friday-Sunday analysis would still provide "Transformers" with the largest 3-day Independence Day opening ever. Banking $97.9 million over those three days eclipsed 2004's "Spider-Man 2" and its $88.2 million start. Incidentally, the original "Transformers" ranks third on the list with its $70.5 beginning in 2007.
As analysts dug through the numbers, opinions were largely in line with the theory that this was a staggering opening for the film on many fronts. Although reviews were better here than with the dismal second offering, critics weren't exactly standing up for the film either (36% via Rotten Tomatoes), but Bay has always succeeded despite, or in spite of, what the critics say about his work. And clearly, "Transformers" is bullet-proof entertainment.
In addition to the Independence Day 3-day and 4-day weekend records, "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" scored the largest opening for IMAX exhibitions globally, amassing more than $22 million from those ticket receipts. Michael Bay's begging fans to see it in 3-D, also paid off with 60% of its ticket sales coming from that presentation. Recent 3-D offerings (Cars 2, Pirates...On Stranger Tides) were bringing in approximately 40% of its opening numbers from 3-D showings.
With CinemaScore showing audiences ranking the film with a solid "A", "Transformers" has one more guaranteed huge weekend coming before the long-awaited and much anticipated finale to the biggest grossing film franchise of all time, "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part II" comes to a close on July 15.
Paramount also made mention that with "Super 8" moving north of $100 million in receipts, they are the only studio who can boast of five consecutive $100 million grossing films (Transformers, Super 8, Thor, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Rango).
Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts fail to make the grade, Bollywood makes a splash, and a Disney superstar struggles to open a movie once again. All of this and the Top 40 after the cut!
LARRY CROWNE
Sigh. Maybe it was the poorly received trailer or the dwindling prospects of two dynamic Academy-Award winning iconic actors, but the Tom Hanks/Julia Roberts romantic comedy, "Larry Crowne" was a big disappointment for Universal over the weekend. Positioned as counterprogramming to the unbeatable "Transformers" film, Universal had initially projected grosses in the mid $20 million range for the 4-day weekend. Audiences, like critics, failed to make a connection with the film and the film ran out of steam, grossing just $16.1 million for the weekend.
Audiences under 35 rated the film "C+" with CinemaScore and Hanks and Roberts endured some of the lowest critical marks of their career with Rotten Tomatoes levying a mere 35% approval on the film. For Hanks, "Larry Crowne"'s $13.0 million 3-day start bested 2007's "Charlie Wilson's War" (also with Roberts) $9.7 million start and was slightly better than his 2004 Coen Brothers collaboration, "The Ladykillers", which began with a $12.6 million take.
The film's opening matched some of Julia Roberts' recent output as well. Although her last film, "Eat Pray Love" opened much bigger than this effort ($23.2 million), "Larry Crowne" tracked with her 2009 action-comedy "Duplicity" with Clive Owen ($14.0 million starting weekend). Everyone expected more from the film it turns out - critics, audiences, and studio. Unless the film draws an unexpected second weekend, "Larry Crowne" may come to rest at approximately $40 million domestic.
MONTE CARLO
As she continues to push herself away from the Disney machine, the A-list teen star Selena Gomez saw another frustrating opening for a movie career still in its relative infancy. Starring alongside Leighton Meester and Katie Cassidy, Gomez's "Monte Carlo" began its run with a mediocre $8.6 million 4-day weekend. Budgeted for a modest $20 million, the film will likely turn a small profit and end up on pace with Gomez's 2010 summer offering, "Ramona And Beezus", which finished with approximately $26 million theatrically.
Some have scoffed at Gomez's first two forays into establishing a movie career, believing that with her high profile on Disney Channel, increasingly successful pop/Top 40 music career, and front-page relationship with pop superstar Justin Bieber, she should be a bigger draw. Time will certainly tell, but Gomez will next hit the multiplex with a cameo in the highly anticipated "The Muppets" this fall.
"DELHI BELLY" AND BOLLYWOOD
Often ignored by most analysts is the fact that with North American box office figures being reported, Canada and the United States factor into the domestic totals gathered by the studios. Although, Bollywood films do receive openings in the States, they are a bit higher profile in Canada and when the numbers come in, Bollywood often draw surprising numbers. Often, the films numbers come in during the middle of the week and are left out of the Top 40 rankings found in this column or on the main box office tracking websites.
UTV Communications, however, got their receipts counted in time for the rankings and reported a strong opening for the curiously-titled "Delhi Belly", which opened with $702k on just 88 screens. The comedy/crime caper about three Dubai roommates who are stuck dealing with a mysterious package earned just under $8,000 per screen and delivered a second strong Bollywood film opening in as many weeks. Last week, playing on 54 screens, the comedy/crime film "Double Dhamaal" opened with comparable numbers.
"Dhamaal" is the latest offering from Reliance Big Pictures, who tout the biggest grossing domestic Bollywood release of all time, 2009's "3 Idiots", which earned $6.5 million in its theatrical stint. Even with a significant expected dropoff, "Delhi Belly" could finish near $1 million when all tickets are counted.
BUCK
Audiences continue to seek out and praise "Buck", the mild-mannered documentary about a man who has devoted his life to training, teaching, and learning about the ways in which horses and humans communicate. Rolling out to 131 screens, "Buck" saw its numbers jump +106.3% and raise its overall totals to $1.1 million. In a year of critically acclaimed documentaries, "Buck" has the makings of being one of the more significant successes for that genre for 2011.
BEGINNERS
Also rolling along nicely is "Beginners", building on Christopher Plummer's Best Supporting Actor buzz and climbing 57.2% this weekend. The small-scale release from Focus Features is still rather hard to find on just 108 screens, but is nearly profitable in terms of earning back its production budget of $3.2 million. It will be interesting to see what steps Focus makes to expand this further, as calculated rollouts for "Midnight In Paris" and to a lesser extent, "The Tree Of Life" have been quite successful this year. "Beginners" could seemingly benefit handsomely from the same treatment.
ADDITIONAL INDEPENDENT TRACKING
"Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times" expanded to 38 sites and saw business ramp up an impressive 243.2%.
Chris Weitz's melancholy drama "A Better Life" drew on some big-name critics' acclaim and saw business increase 94.9%, despite appearing on just 11 locations. The 11-day total for the film is now resting at $204k.
John C. Reilly's return to independent fare, "Terri", a dark comedy about a misfit high school teenager and Reilly as his guidance counselor, had one of the larger per screen averages of the weekend, gathering $13,043 per site to a 65-site tally of $78k.
REMAINING TOP 12 FILMS
The light has burned out on "Green Lantern". The film hemorrhaged another 56%, and while it did eclipse $100 million in box office receipts, the film is still a massive disappointment with its $200 million production budget looming large and unattainable.
Pixar saw "Cars 2" suffer the biggest second weekend drop off in studio history (-52.2%) and will struggle to earn back its $200 million budget stateside. Globally, however, the film became profitable this weekend with a worldwide haul of $204.8 million, so the news is not all terrible for the disappointingly received film.
"Midnight In Paris" saw its fortunes return with an uptick of 5% and return inside the Top 10. "...Paris" is now just $6 million away from becoming Woody Allen's biggest grossing film of all time. Elsewhere, "Bridesmaids" and "Super 8" held strong over the 4-day weekend.
Despite seeing its theaters slashed from 2,500 sites to just over 2,000, "Bridesmaids" lost only one-quarter of its previous weekend's audience and is closing in on $150 million in box office earnings. "Pirates Of The Caribbean" also dropped a quarter of its previous weekend's audience; rather surprising for a film that has been dropping steadily since its opening weekend.
THE DISCOUNT HOUSE
"Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family" blew the doors off the 2nd-run houses with a unspeakable 604.2% increase from moving into 140 locations. The film has grossed $53.0 million in its 11 week run and arrives on DVD/Blu-Ray and VOD on August 30, 2011.
THE WEEKEND BREAKDOWN (4-Day Weekend Totals)
#1 Film - "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon", earned $115.9 million in its debut 4-day weekend. Cumulative total sits at $180.7 million.
Last Year's #1 Film at this time: "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse", earned $83.6 million in its debut 4-day weekend.
Biggest Per Screen Average: "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon", $28,878 at 4,013 locations ($115.9 million 4-day weekend)
Worst Per Screen Average (50+ Sites): "Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil", $531 at 68 locations ($36k, $10.1 million cumulative)
Largest Increase (50+ Sites): "Tyler Perry's Madea's Big, Happy Family", +604.2%
Steepest Decline (50+ Sites): "Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer", -73.3%
Films Earning More Than $1m for the weekend: 15
Films Which Surpassed $100m: "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon", "Cars 2", "Super 8", "Green Lantern"
Films Which Surpassed $200m: N/A
Films Which Surpassed Reported Budget This Weekend (Domestic): "Midnight In Paris"
The Top 40 and other notables (Wkd Figures and % Chg, based on 4-day totals)!
| TW | LW | DAY | FILM | WKD | TOTAL | % CHG |
| 1 | N | 6 | Transformers: Dark Of The Moon | $115.9m | $180.7m | New |
| 2 | 1 | 11 | Cars 2 | $31.6m | $122.6m | -52.2 |
| 3 | 2 | 11 | Bad Teacher | $17.3m | $62.7m | -45.4 |
| 4 | N | 4 | Larry Crowne | $16.1m | $16.1m | New |
| 5 | 4 | 25 | Super 8 | $9.5m | $110.1m | -20.8 |
| 6 | N | 4 | Monte Carlo | $8.6m | $8.6m | New |
| 7 | 3 | 18 | Green Lantern | $7.9m | $103.6m | -56.0 |
| 8 | 5 | 18 | Mr. Popper's Penguins | $6.7m | $51.7m | -33.9 |
| 9 | 11 | 46 | Midnight In Paris | $4.382m | $34.6m | +5.1 |
| 10 | 8 | 53 | Bridesmaids | $4.355m | $153.7m | -17.2 |
| 11 | 6 | 32 | X-Men: First Class | $3.6m | $139.3m | -45.8 |
| 12 | 7 | 40 | The Hangover Part II | $2.8m | $248.7m | -49.8 |
| 13 | 9 | 46 | Pirates..Stranger Tides | $2.6m | $234.2m | -46.7 |
| 14 | 10 | 40 | Kung Fu Panda 2 | $2.1m | $157.3m | -50.0 |
| 15 | 12 | 39 | The Tree Of Life | $1.3m | $7.8m | -1.6 |
| 16 | 17 | 32 | Beginners | $741k | $2.5m | +57.2 |
| 17 | N | 4 | Delhi Belly | $702k | $702k | New |
| 18 | 19 | 18 | Buck | $601k | $1.1m | +106.3 |
| 19 | 14 | 81 | Rio | $543k | $140.6m | +1.9 |
| 20 | 15 | 60 | Thor | $471k | $178.0m | -7.9 |
| 21 | 16 | 67 | Fast Five | $391k | $208.4m | -23.1 |
| 22 | 22 | 88 | Born To Be Wild IMAX | $278k | $8.3m | +23.2 |
| 23 | 20 | 74 | Water For Elephants | $207k | $58.1m | -19.2 |
| 24 | 23 | 88 | Soul Surfer | $202k | $43.4m | -3.1 |
| 25 | 25 | 25 | The Trip | $198k | $802k | +27.4 |
| 26 | 13 | 18 | Judy Moody...NOT Bummer Summer | $165k | $14.0m | -73.3 |
| 27 | 43 | 18 | Page One: Inside The New York Times | $155k | $269k | +243.2 |
| 28 | 30 | 473 | Hubble 3D | $145k | $26.3m | +30.5 |
| 29 | 55 | 74 | Tyler Perry's Madea's Big, Happy Family | $137k | $53.0m | +604.2 |
| 30 | 26 | 67 | Cave Of Forgotten Dreams | $136k | $4.7m | -4.5 |
| 31 | 38 | 11 | A Better Life | $121k | $205k | +94.9 |
| 32 | 21 | 60 | Something Borrowed | $120k | $38.7m | -46.8 |
| 33 | 29 | 123 | Rango | $110k | $123.2m | -5.5 |
| 34 | 27 | 109 | The Lincoln Lawyer | $110k | $57.8m | -20.2 |
| 35 | 18 | 11 | Double Dhamaal | $99k | $491k | -67.2 |
| 36 | N | 3 | Terri | $78k | $78k | New |
| 37 | 36 | 95 | Source Code | $72k | $54.6m | +4.5 |
| 38 | 34 | 74 | Incendies | $62k | $1.8m | -11.9 |
| 39 | 33 | 95 | Insidious | $54k | $53.6m | -25.2 |
| 40 | 32 | 11 | Conan O'Brien Can't Stop | $49k | $191k | -49.3 |
BUBBLING UNDER INCREASES AND OPENINGS:
41. “Trollhunter”, $48k, $112k total, +138.4%
46. "The Names Of Love", $36k, $80k total, +17.3%
52. "Queen To Play", $29k, $379k total, +295.7%
54. “Passione”, $22k, $55k total, +45.7%
56. “13 Assassins”, $20k, $746k total, +8.8%
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