With Independence Day falling on a Monday, Hollywood was expecting a good four-day weekend at the box office, and it got one, with Transformers: Dark Of The Moon setting a new record for the holiday, taking $97.5 million from Friday to Sunday in the US, and $116.4 million with yesterday’s holiday added in. It overtook the previous record holder, which was Spider-man 2.
Adding in what it made from Wednesday, the robot movie is now standing at $181 million in its first six days, which most people would see as very good, but which some are saying could be seen as a disappointment. The reason for that is that it’s trailing behind where the last Transformers movie stood at this stage, despite the extra revenue of 3D ticket sales.
However it’s unlikely Paramount will be crying at the figures. In fact the figures are pretty strong considering the bad reaction to Revenge Of The Fallen may have left many feeling burned (indeed the likes of Michael Bay and Shia LaBeouf even went as far as pretty much apologising for that film and promising this would be better, in an effort to get audiences to give the franchise another go).
Globally the movie took around $400 million by the end of the holiday weekend. It’s international haul was ahead of Revenge Of The Fallen by this stage, which is certainly good news for the studio, seeing as this year it’s been the box office outside America that’s saved Hollywood from a rather meagre year blockbuster-wise (films like Pirates 4 and Kung Fu Panda 2 have underperformed in America, but torn things up elsewhere). It’s the third biggest global launch for a movie ever, with the film getting the biggest debut ever for a movie in seven territories – South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Peru.
There were two more new entries in the top 10. Larry Crowne was in fourth spot with $15.7 million, a figure many have suggested is pretty weak for a movie starring Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks. However considering it’s a small, middle-aged romance, with no obvious hook to get audiences in theatres, it’s actually not a bad amount of money. As it cost only $30 million to make, it should certainly turn a profit, even if it isn’t the sort of hit you might expect from a movie with two big stars.
The other new entry was the tween romantic comedy Monte Carlo, which took sixth spot with $8.7 million. It’s an okay start, although weaker than many other recent tween entries. The distributors were obviously hoping it would work as good counterprogramming to the male-oriented robots, but it’s only partially worked.
One other thing worth mentioning box office-wise if Bridesmaids, whose US gross passed the $150 million mark over the weekend, as well as overtaking Sex And The City to become the highest grossing R-rated female-oriented movie ever.
Take a look below for the Independence Day US box office top 10, from July 1st-4th, 2011.
Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
1 | Transformers: Dark Of The Moon | $116.4 | $181.1 |
2 | Cars 2 | $32.0 | $123.0 |
3 | Bad Teacher | $17.6 | $63.0 |
4 | Larry Crowne | $15.7 | $15.7 |
5 | Super 8 | $9.5 | $110.0 |
6 | Monte Carlo | $8.6 | $8.7 |
7 | Green Lantern | $7.9 | $103.6 |
8 | Mr. Popper’s Penguins | $6.8 | $51.8 |
9 | Bridesmaids | $4.4 | $153.7 |
10 | Midnight In Paris | $4.3 | $34.5 |