Baaaaaaaay!!!!
Official tallies are still being, um, tallied, but it looks like Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has squeaked by Ice Age 3D: Dawn of the Dinosaurs to hang on to the holiday weekend box-office crown. After Sunday-afternoon studio estimates had the two flicks tied, TF:ROTF is now projected to end up with about $42.5 million, while Ice Age will probably bring in around $41.5 million.
Looking at the five-day weekend (Ice Age, like Transformers last week, debuted on Wednesday), Ice Age may have come out ahead of Transformers, earning $67.5 million over that stretch, compared to the Autobots' $65 million second-week haul. Ice Age also beat Transformers on the international scene--its $148 million international mark (TF:ROTF had $55 million) is an overseas record for an animated feature.
Of course, some of the extra bump for Ice Age was due to the fact it opened on the most-ever number of 3D screens, and as those of us who paid to see it over the weekend learned, those 3D tickets run a few dollars higher.
For the Transformers, this weekend marked a 61% drop off from last weekend's near-record debut, a bit steeper than industry projections, but probably not enough to slow the Marauding Masters of Mechanized Mayhem on their march to becoming this year's biggest box-office hit. ($293 million so far, with Up in second for the year with $264 million, and Star Trek in third with $249 million.)
The only challengers remaining are a bespectacled boy wizard and maybe James Cameron's Avatar in December. However, while there's no denying the huge Potter fandom and its long-delayed anticipation for Half-Blood Prince next week, I have to wonder if Potter's box-office potential has a built-in endpoint--this deep into the series, I'm not sure if it draws in a lot of new fans. Still, the existing loyal masses could be enough--with devoted multiple viewings--to push it past Transformers. For the sake of civilization and out of fear of Michael Bay's ego growing so large it consumes us all, let's hope so.
Michael Mann's Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, came in third with $26 million for the weekend and $41 million since its debut on Wednesday. That's a very solid showing for thoughtful, well-done adult counter-programming to Battlin' Robots and Nut-Obsessed Saber-Squirrels. James and Erika disagreed on Public Enemies, but let me say I come down fully on James' side: While the last act does drag a bit, I thought overall it was a beautifully made, engaging film.
The rest of the top ten this weekend included The Proposal (continuing to do well for relatively inexpensive rom-com--no costly CGI was required, except maybe during Bullock's nude scene), The Hangover (past the $200 million mark, on a $35 million budget), Up, My Sister's Keeper, The Taking of Pelham 123, Year One, and Night at the Museum 2. (My beloved Star Trek finally slid out of the top ten.)
Two terrific indie films, Moon and The Hurt Locker, continued to slowly expand onto more screens--I hope to have reviews of both this coming weekend as they move into even more theaters.
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