Megan Fox, Shia and Transformers Bots Pull off Record $200 Million Opening

Michael Bay flick makes $112M US and over $201M overall

By Jeffrey Jolson

Megan serves up


HOLLYWOOD, CA (RPRN/Hollywood Today) 6/30/2009 - It wasn’t Megan Fox’s clear blue eyes or Shia LeBeouff’s young but inspired acting, yet the effect, not effects of Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” as it breaks records round the globe — and the universe if they are listening to the sci-fi soon-to-be classic.

In order to understand how Hollywood zooms when economic times are bad, “Up” broke the $250M mark and “The Hangover” rocked to $183 million and should pass $200M in a week.

Why we spend our money on movies instead of food when times are troubled has been a point of economist’s debates since the Great Depression. Yet they don’t understand a good picture. It makes you laugh, thrills your ass or scares you - therefore providing food for the soul.

TR2 gave you all three (see related HT story), and gave it to you at the right time for an action pic, with $112 domestic weekend and $201 million US overall and near $300 WW..

The chick flick “The Proposal” sold another $19 million wedding cakes, while the dude movie “The Hangover,” cooked up another $17 million headaches for an $183 mil cume. So which one do you take a date to? The answer is, and always has been, the chick flick - or you end up at the Trekkie fest alone.

Speaking of which, the new “Star Trek” is up to $246 million, — the JJ Abrams version happens to be a good film –yet that may not get you a date either.

Instead try “Up,” which can’t soar much higher for Pixar, now at $250 million cume after $13M in its fifth week.

WEEKEND TOP 5 STUDIO ESTIMATES, JUNE 26-28, 2009

Rank. Movie Title (Distributor)
Weekend Gross | Theaters | Total Gross | Week #

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount (DreamWorks))
$112.0 million | 4,234 | $201.2 million | 1

2. The Proposal (Buena Vista)
$18.5 million | 3,058 | $69.1 million | 2

3. The Hangover (Warner Bros.)
$17.2 million | 3,525 | $183.2 million | 4

4. Up (Buena Vista)
$13.0 million | 3,487 | $250.2 million | 5

5. My Sister’s Keeper (Warner Bros.)
$12.0 million | 2,606 | $12.0 million 1
Boxofficemojo.com

Source: Hollywood Today