Michael Bay is Laughing All the Way to the Bank

I would be too, though. His epically awesome sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, took in $112m in the US this weekend, bringing its 5 day total to the jaw-droppingly awesome amount of $201.2m. This, of course, shatters, the record of $152.4m set by Spider-Man 2 for a 5 day opening weekend. What's more, globally the film took in $387m, which gives this movie the largest global opening weekend in history.

To give you an idea of just how much money this is, the movie itself cost $200m. In one weekend, the movie paid for itself. Also, as far as the other summer blockbusters go, Star Trek has been out over a month now, and it has taken in $246m domestically. That means with even a marginal showing next weekend, Transformers will surpass Star Trek after just two weeks. Also, Pixar's Up, which this weekend stole the title of highest grossing summer movie from Star Trek has made $250.2m domestically, and Transformers may well surpass even that next weekend.

So, it appears that audiences everywhere,the world over, are snubbing the critics, who tore the movie to shreds in their reviews. It's score on the Tomatometer is a downright rotten 20%, but, like I said before, it might very well surpass Star Trek and Up in it's second week! Put nicely, I'm impressed. I mean, I love the movie (you can see my take on it here), but I wasn't quite sure how audiences would react to it. I'm glad it's getting the reception it deserves though.

I spent literally all weekend arguing with people about why the movie is awesome. In a strange twist of events, I have heard people say that there is not enough action, and others saying that there is too much... I can't say I've ever heard two opposing reactions to the same movie like that before. It's a bit befuddling to argue about how there are lots of slower moments in the movie, then have to turn around and argue that there's not too little action. I, for one, think it was nicely balanced.

Regardless, the movie is awesome, I'm glad that it's raking in the big bucks, and I can't wait for the inevitable next one.

Edit: I stumbled across this interesting factoid while browsing the web today. Like I mentioned above, over its first 5 days, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen grossed $387m globally. That makes it the 2nd highest grossing movie (globally speaking) of 2009, behind only Angels & Demons, which has grossed $467.7m globally (interestingly enough, only $130.3m of that is from the US). In 5 days Transformers made about 80% of what Angels & Demons (my take on that movie is here) has made in 5 weeks. So think about that for a second. Despite being one of the lowest rated films of 2009, it stands ready to be the year's biggest phenomenon, both domestically and abroad.

Edit, Part 2: It seems I am going to see the movie again on IMAX tomorrow night. I can't wait!!!