Movie breaks box office records in US.

[griffin]

Apparantly its opening day in the US raked in between US$55-61million, making it the highest Wednesday opening film in America (which isn't difficult, because their regular release day is Friday, so less than 1% of movies would open on any of the other 6 days, including Wednesday).

http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-...pening-168005/

Aside from that distorted record acheivement, that is still a phenominal amount in one day, with the expected 'opening 5-day' earnings to pass the cost of making the movie. And that's just in the US. Expect the same amount to be earnt around the rest of the world, earning Paramount a fortune, and guaranteeing a third. But wait to see if the takings are sustained beyond the opening weekend, to see how big a TF3 will be. As it will be word of mouth that gets others in who weren't swayed by the advertisements.

[griffin]

Also from michael bay's website, and mentioned here, are some figures from the UK and Japan, who both had the movie released about a week earlier.

Transformers 2 opened spectacularly in their world debuts in the UK and Japan, grossing a total of $20 mil from 846 locations. The Michael Bay directed film was a clear #1 in both territories, with the UK’s opening total of $14.1 mil from 517 locations outperforming rival comic book sequel Spider-Man 2 by 18%, the original Transformers movie by 71% and coming within 3% of the Dark Knight weekend total. In Japan, the film’s gross of $5.8mn from 329 locations was 64% ahead of The Dark Knight, and only 13% behind Transformers which had the advantage of opening in summer school holidays.

The franchise’s eagerly awaited second instalment opens across most of the rest of the world next week on Wednesday June 24th.

[griffin]

More box-office stats -

Wednesday opening also broke the one-day IMAX record. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on IMAX brought in US$1 million.

The overseas cumulative total through Wednesday was US$59 million, bringing the worldwide total box office to US$146.6 million.

http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-...office-168018/

[mknell]

I heard on the radio in Australia it is #1 as well breaking the record for first day sales with over $200 million

[griffin]

That's more likely $2million for Australia. It hasn't even done $200 million worldwide on the first day.

[griffin]

Updates of what TF2 is raking in, in the US.

US$125.9 million total in three days, with $36.7 million on their Friday.
In Imax format - $2.6 million on Friday, taking in $8.9 million so far.
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-...fallen-168028/

US$203.8 million in 5 days!
It has already made it to being the 3rd highest grossing movie for this year, and it hasn't even been in theatres for a whole week.
This 5-day opening is so big, it only narrowly missed the record set by 'The Dark Knight' last year of $203.8 million.
Other countries around the world have raked in an additional $186.1 million, giving a worldwide total at US$387 million.
Some noted takings:
Britain (opened a week early) - $27 million
China - $21.9 million
South Korea - $14.9 million
Australia - $13 million
Russia - $11.8 million

The first "Transformers" earned $708 million worldwide in 2007, the fifth-biggest film of the year. It ranked at No. 3 in North America with sales of $319 million. The new film should pass that tally next week...

http://www.reuters.com/article/marke...33977520090628
This compares to the 2007 Movie making $107.6 million in its first four and a half days.

And we can probably see similar numbers next weekend, with the July 4th Holiday weekend in America, which is traditionally the biggest weekend in American theatres (which is why the big Blockbusters try to reserve that week early - TF1 release date was announced 2 years beforehand). Not to mention, the next big movie in America isn't out for 3 weeks (Harry Potter), giving TFs a vitual Blockbuster monopoly during that time.

With the movie costing somewhere between $150-200million, anything Paramount take in now would surely be profit (depending on how much of the movie ticket price goes to Paramount).
At least it is doing well over what Paramount were expecting, or at least, hoping.