Box Office Actuals (7/8/11 - 7/10/11) - "Transformers" Keeps Competition At Bay...

Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:

"Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" retained its lockdown on the top spot of the North American Box Office totals, dipping 51.9% and grossing another $47.1 million. Overall, the third "Transformers" film is rolling along strong with a 12-day gross of $261.1 million thus far.

As impressive as that number is, the film is still lagging a distant second behind the pace set by 2009's "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen", which had earned $293.4 million in that same stretch. 2007's "Transformers" film had banked $212.3 in its first 12 days.

Paramount executives are not only pleased with the fact that they have a massive hit on their hands domestically, but worldwide the film is delivering staggering totals. Overseas, "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon" has grossed $395 million and has tallied more than $662 million thus far. Within a week, the film will move past the first entry in the series, in terms of worldwide gross ($709 million), and the $836 million+ hauled in by "...Revenge of the Fallen" is well within reach. The only thing standing in "Transformers" way? A pesky little wizard named Harry Potter, who could potentially re-write some history books beginning this weekend.

In 2007, the first "Transformers" held the top spot for two weeks and narrowly was defeated in Week 3 by the Adam Sandler/Kevin James comedy, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry". In 2009, "...Revenge Of The Fallen" fell from the top after a two-week run when "Bruno" opened to the tune of $30.6 million for Sacha Baron Cohen.

Unlike the terrible 62% drop of "...Revenge of the Fallen", "...Dark Of The Moon"'s decline of slightly more than half of its opening audience was better than expected. Both films have held decent in their respective third weekends, but they have never faced the likes of a "Harry Potter" film. The "Harry Potter" series finale has the potential to surpass this year's biggest opening weekend of 2011 - the $97.8 million opening for "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon".

Can raunchy R-rated comedy continue to deliver big numbers? Can Kevin James overcome the worst reviews of his career? And which documentary had a massive opening weekend per-screen average? You might be surprised with the answers and the Top 40...after the cut!

Box Office Actuals (7/1/11 - 7/4/11) - "Transformers" Demolishes Everything In Its Path...

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!

Box Office Actuals (6/24/11-6/26/11): "Cars 2" Easily Takes The Checkered Flag...

Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:

Overcoming the distinction of being the first negatively reviewed Pixar film ever, "Cars 2" roared past the field and collected an impressive $66.1 million, besting the start of "Cars" in 2006 when strictly counting dollars. Attendance was down comparatively however with more than 40% of ticket sales for "Cars 2" coming off its 3-D exhibitions.

In the Pixar family of films, "Cars 2" looks impressive when compared to other openings from the studio. "Cars 2" represents the 4th largest June opening of all time and the 5th largest Pixar opening of all time, trailing behind "Toy Story 3" (2010, $110.3 million), "The Incredibles" (2004, $70.5 million), "Finding Nemo" (2003, $70.3 million), and "Up" (2009, $68.1 million).

And with all the negative reviews levied upon the film, "Cars 2" represents the always prevalent disconnect between critics and audiences. By the time of this writing, "Cars 2" had watched its Tomatometer drain down to 33% (?!) but CinemaScore polling of opening weekend audiences found the film score an A-. Additionally, the start for "Cars 2" also secured Pixar their 12th consecutive #1 wide opening (both "A Bug's Life" and "Toy Story 2" opened on one screen initially, only to move to #1 with its wide release the following weekends).

With so much of the news good for "Cars 2", Pixar and Disney seem unconcerned with the negative response the film received prior to its opening. Nikki Finke at Deadline reports one unnamed Disney source as stating, "Critics not liking a movie doesn't seem like it will hurt the Pixar brand in my opinion. It will be their 12th #1 film in a row and will rank near the top for opening weekends." And they were right.

One unexpected benefit from seeing "Cars 2" in theaters is having the chance to catch "Toy Story: Hawaiian Vacation", a new animated short film which tore the house down at my screening and looks to be a player for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar, if it is submitted for consideration. Additionally, Pixar made the curious decision to launch promotional efforts for next summer's "Brave", a action/adventure epic featuring a female lead voiced by Kelly McDonald.

The debut of the teaser is not noteworthy per se, with studios piggybacking their next big project on the backs of their latest releases all the time. This, however, seemed different. Pixar did not just deliver a teaser, but they always sent out stills and production notes and other marketing gimmicks, almost as if to try and deflect attentions away from the increasingly lukewarm and bad PR for "Cars 2".

For what it's worth, "Brave" became the hot topic amongst those both in and out of the movie industry and the film, initially, looks fantastic.

Cameron Diaz hits a couple of milestones you may not be aware of, the now-weekly Allen/Malick analysis, and a flood of indie documentaries and dramas look to make their mark. All of this and the Top 40 after the cut!