TRANSFORMERS SEQUEL LAYS WASTE TO NAYSAYERS

Transformers: Dark of the Moon brightened up the July 4th holiday weekend as it earned $97.8 million between Friday and Sunday and $115.9 million over the four-day holiday. It represented the biggest opening for a July 4th weekend ever, beating Spider-Man 2‘s $88.2 million for the three days and $115.8 million for the four. The opening also set records for IMAX, which recorded its high global record for a movie ever — $23.1 million, $14 million of which came from U.S. big-screen venues. In second place, Disney’s Cars 2 dropped 60 percent in its second weekend, earning $26.3 million over the three-day period and $31.6 million over the four-. It may not have been any blockbuster, but Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris continued to hold its own, dropping only 14 percent to $3.6 million/$4.4 million, even as it lost theaters. (It’s now playing in 858 of them.) The movie has now collected $34.6 million.

The top ten films over the July 4th weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo. Figures after the slash (/) represent sales for the four-day weekend (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Paramount, $97,852,865/$115,886,050, 1 Wk. ($180,651,397); 2. Cars 2, Disney/$Pixar, $26,273,387/$31,629,695 2 Wks. ($122,560,310); 3. Bad Teacher, Sony, $14,506,592/$17,261,534 2 Wks. ($62,707,505); 4. Larry Crowne, Universal, $13,096,065/$16,098,795, 1 Wk. ($16,098,795); 5. Super 8, Paramount, $7,922,218/$9,527,129, 4 Wks. ($110,070,156); 6. Monte Carlo, 20th Century Fox, $7,453,944/$8,588,318, 1 Wk. ($8,588,318); 7. Green Lantern, Warner Bros., $6,556,612/$7,928,176, 3 Wks. ($103,616,460); 8. Mr. Popper’s Penguins, 20th Century Fox, $5,537,956/$6,702,940, 3 Wks. ($51,727,662); 9. Midnight in Paris, SPC, $3,579,967/$4,382,382, 7 Wks. ($34,582,454); 10. Bridesmaids, Universal, $3,646,125/$4,354,515, 8 Wks. ($153,728,880).