The invasion begins – Transformers 3 box office collections

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The divide between the critics and the audience may be expanding as far as the opinion on Transformers: Dark of the Moon is concerned. But looks like the producers are winning as Transformers 3 opened in the US box office with this year’s best numbers. Michael Bay’s concluding episode of the robot wars trilogy raked in $97.5 million on its first weekend in the US which dethroned Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides as this year’s best opening movie. Comparing it with its predecessors placed it between Revenge of the Fallen’s $109 million and Transformers’ $70.5 million.

The 5-day opening of Dark of the Moon drove in $156 million which is a massive figure by summer blockbuster standards though it isn’t anywhere near Revenge of the Fallen’s $200 million. However, in DOTM’s defense, ROTF was fresh off the tremendous amount of goodwill generated by the first Transformers and DOTM follows up the devastatingly negative reviews that ROTF fetched. In that context, the box office show of Transformers 3 is impressive and as these lines are keyed in the movie is well into $180 million territory in the US box office. This could very well be first $300 million movie of 2011.

The Primes - Sentinel and Optimus

In the international markets, Dark of the Moon came in all guns blazing. The 3D factor and the marketing strategy which promoted the movie as the best 3D spectacle since James Cameron’s Avatar seems to have paid off. Pulling in $218 million reassures the stupendous box office performance that Transformers 3 is going to put up in the next few weeks. South Korea and Russia turned out to be the major contributors followed by UK, Australia and Germany. Two territories which dig Transformers more than anything else – Japan and China – will be invaded later this month. We are estimating the final international numbers to be in the neighbourhood of $600 million.

If not completely overshadowed by the final Harry Potter movie which releases late July, Transformers: Dark of the Moon could cross the $1 billion mark to become the first Michael Bay movie and the first Transformers movie to join the elite club.

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