Pic scores best five-day haul after ‘Dark Knight’
Aside from its whopping five-day domestic tally — the second highest of all time — Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” broke records in several countries overseas, leading to a massive $387.3 million worldwide through Sunday, one of the best global launches ever.
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. And “Transformers 2″ nearly matched the best five-day gross of all time: $203.8 million for WB’s “The Dark Knight.”
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). The sequel’s foreign cume was $186.1 million when factoring in the $24.1 million earned the previous weekend in the U.K. and Japan.
Although the Michael Bay-helmed pic sucked up most of the oxygen at the box office, other pics scored notable numbers. Disney-Pixar’s “Up” surpassed Par’s “Star Trek” to become the year’s highest-grossing title at the domestic B.O. (The film’s cume through Sunday was an estimated $250.2 million, boosted by the added charge for 3-D tickets.)
Warner Bros.’ “The Hangover” passed $200 million at the worldwide B.O. Domestically, it saw $17.2 million from 3,525 for a cume of $183.2 million. Abroad, film earned $10.1 million from 1,250 runs in 29 markets for a cume of $46.2 million and worldwide tally of $229.2 million.
Several specialty titles popped, including Summit Entertainment’s “The Hurt Locker.” Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the film posted a per-screen average of $36,000 as it opened in four theaters in L.A. and New York, grossing an estimated $144,000.
The weekend’s only wide release besides “Revenge of the Fallen” was Cameron Diaz-Abigail Breslin drama “My Sister’s Keeper.” The film saw modest biz in grossing $12 million from 2,606 runs to come in No. 5 for the weekend.
[Credit: Variety / Hollywood.com]