Do we even have to say it? Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen made huge, heaping, robot-turned-dump-truck-loads of money this weekend and made Michael Bay a very happy man. Despite claims of racism, the movie raked in $112M, which, added to the $89.2M it made earlier in the week, gave it the second largest five day opening of all time — right behind The Dark Knight . And to top it off, assuming that the movie passes the $300m mark — and unless all of the copies of it spontaneously explode, it will — Shia LaBeouf will become the first star ever to appear in $300M films three summers in a row. Not bad for a guy who’s in love with his mother.
Though it came in way below the top spot, The Proposal made $18.4M ($69M total) and only took a 45 percent dip in sales this weekend — reasonable by industry standards. With nothing else on the rom-com horizon until late July, it’s poised to be Sandra Bullock’s biggest gross to date. (Her highest rated film by critics? Speed.)
The Hangover brought in a solid $17.2M ($183.2M total) — impressive considering that it’s competing for the same audience as the Autobots up there. And with the big holiday weekend coming up, the surprise smash is set to break the $200M mark easily next weekend.
UP is officially the #1 grossing movie of 2009 — at least until Transformers: RotF creams it later this week (we love you Carl!) The Disney/Pixar ‘toon dropped 45 percent to an estimated $13M this week, putting it in at $250.2M total; it’s still on track to be the second largest gross in Pixar’s history.
The only other newbie on the list this week, My Sister’s Keeper , opened to a disappointing $12M despite decent reviews (at least compared to Transformers: RotF). The Cameron Diaz tearjerker performed only slightly better than her last book-to-screen performance, In Her Shoes ; maybe they should have made her character an animated, hungover robot who is best friends with Sandra Bullock… just sayin’.