06.29.09 $387 MIL: the fart heard round the world

(Transformers 2: You Can’t Even Tell Who’s Fighting)

Five days after opening in the U.S., Transformers 2 has earned $387.2 million dollars worldwide.  Domestically, it earned $201.2 million, becoming the second-highest five-day gross ever behind The Dark Knight ($203.8).  And keep in mind it opened on a Wednesday.

The five-day opening gross of $201.2 million from 4,234 theaters domestically easily eclipsed the $152.4 million earned by “Spider-Man 2,” which previously held the five-day record for a Wednesday launch.  Overseas, the action tentpole opened to an estimated $162 million, the fourth best international opening of all time, after “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” ($216.3 million), “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” ($193 million) and “Spider-Man 3″ ($164.9 million).

Despite negative reviews, more than 90% of those polled as they left theaters said the sequel was as good as, or better than, the first. [Variety]

I find that poll hard to believe, but knowing the audience for this film I’m not sure those polled were capable of understanding the question.  I saw Transformers on Saturday afternoon.  Before the movie started, the groups of kids directly in front of me and behind me were both playing video games (with the sound on) on their PSPs.  Then throughout the movie, of the three white kids sitting in front of me, two were texting the entire movie and one actually answered his phone during.  The two black dudes to my left yelled at the screen the whole time, and on my right, there was a Hispanic woman translating everything into Spanish for her husband.  Everywhere children were crying or yelling or whining about going to the bathroom, and I was convinced that at any second, a kid with a propeller beanie and giant lollypop would run down the aisle smearing everyone’s face with chocolate.  Long story short, I thought the film was pretty terrible, but given the atmosphere I might not have been the best audience for a movie about saving humanity.

1	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	$112,000,000	$26,453	$201,246,000
2	The Proposal	$18,466,000 (-45.1%)	$6,039	$69,050,000
3	The Hangover	$17,215,000 (-35.7%)	$4,884	$183,247,000
4	Up	$13,046,000 (-44.5%)	$3,741	$250,218,000
5	My Sister’s Keeper	$12,030,000	$4,616	$12,030,000
6	Year One	$5,800,000 (-70.4%)	$1,918	$32,207,000
7	The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3	$5,400,000 (-55.1%)	$1,803	$53,406,000
8	Star Trek	$3,606,000 (-34.6%)	$1,978	$246,225,000
9	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian	$3,500,000 (-55.2%)	$1,556	$163,248,000
10	Away We Go	$1,678,000 (+92.6%)	$3,390	$4,056,000

[via CHUD]