Monday, June 29, 2009

Transformers' tops $200 million

Paramount's action sequel "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" capped its dramatic debut with a vengeance, ringing up $112 million in estimated weekend boxoffice for a competition-crunching domestic cume of $201.2 million since storming theaters Wednesday.

Matched against the first five days of all previous film releases, the "Transformers" tally falls below only that of last summer's "The Dark Knight," which debuted with $203.8 million during a Friday-to-Tuesday span. With another $181.6 million coming from overseas, the global gross for the second "Transformers" now stands at $363.2 million.

Produced by Paramount, DreamWorks and Hasbro, "Transformers" hauled in at least $25 million more through Sunday than most had anticipated.Now playing in almost every other country except India, the movie added $185.8 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $387 million. That's well over half the $708 million global total for the first "Transformers."

That first movie began with a $70.5 million weekend. Based on how well the sequel has done, "Revenge of the Fallen" could join the handful of movies that have topped the $400 million mark domestically.

"I'd say given the momentum it has, it's got a real shot," said Rob Moore, vice chairman at Paramount.

For the first five days, the "Transformers" sequel was second only to last summer's "The Dark Knight" with $203.8 million.

This was the biggest opening weekend of this year, surpassing the $85.1 million debut of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" in early May.

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