By David Germain
The Transformers robots have put their 3D ticket-price advantage to good use.
Distributor Paramount Pictures has estimated that Transformers: Dark of the Moon pulled in $116.4 million at the North American box office over the four-day Fourth of July weekend and $181.1 million since opening Tuesday night.
Director Michael Bay's third instalment in the sci-fi franchise has added US$217 million overseas, bringing its worldwide total to nearly US$400 million.
The studio says 60 percent of North American business came from premium-priced 3D admissions, which cost a few dollars more than 2D screenings. Overseas, 3D admissions accounted for 70 percent of ticket sales.
That's a good sign for Hollywood's 3D business, which had waned as 3D revenues dipped to 50 percent or less of the total for some recent releases.
"It proves that for 3D to be successful, it has to be attached to the right kind of movie. This was this monumental Michael Bay blockbuster, and for something like that, people felt it's worth the money," said Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. "It's all about maintaining good quality. If they see three 3D movies in a row that look terrible, they're not going to put the money down again."
The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, the animated adventure Cars 2, slipped steeply in its second weekend with US$32.1 million in North America, the movie losing steam more quickly than past features from Disney's Pixar Animation outfit.
Cars 2 raised its North American total to US$123 million and topped US$200 million worldwide.
The weekend's other new wide releases opened back in the pack. Universal Pictures' recession romance Larry Crowne opened quietly at No. 4 with US$15.7 million despite the star power of writer-director Tom Hanks and co-star Julia Roberts. The movie stars Hanks as a downsized retail worker who heads back to school, where he falls for his public-speaking teacher (Roberts).
While Transformers and Cars 2 played to young audiences, the over-35 crowd accounted for 81 percent of the audience for Larry Crowne. Movies appealing to older audiences tend to stick around longer in theatres, and Universal executives hope fans will seek out the movie once Fourth of July festivities are behind them.
"For adults who are always preoccupied with barbecues and entertaining and family, my expectations were never greater than this," said Nikki Rocco, the studio's head of distribution.
The 20th Century Fox romantic romp Monte Carlo opened a weak No. 6 with US$8.8 million. The movie stars Selena Gomez, Katie Cassidy and Leighton Meester as American travellers who get the princess treatment in Monaco after Gomez impersonates a European heiress.
Despite a big start for Dark of the Moon, overall business slipped compared to last Fourth of July weekend. According to Hollywood.com, North American revenues Friday to Monday came in at US$239 million, down 4.5 percent from a year ago, when The Twilight Saga: Eclipse opened with US$83.6 million and The Last Airbender debuted with US$51.8 million.
Skeptics felt the Transformers franchise had lost much of its lustre after the new sequel pulled in far less money on opening day than its predecessor. Dark of the Moon launched with US$37.7 million Wednesday, down 39 percent from the first day gross of US$62 million for 2009's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
But Dark of the Moon has held up better day by day than Revenge of the Fallen, closing the revenue gap between the two.
After just over six days in theatres, the new movie still is well behind the US$200.1 million North American haul that Revenge of the Fallen managed in only five days.
Dark of the Moon has far better reviews and probably is drawing more-favourable audience word of mouth than Revenge of the Fallen, which was hated by critics and was a disappointment to many fans, despite the movie's US$400 million North American finish and US$800 million global total.
"People didn't like No. 2 very well," said Don Harris, head of distribution for Paramount. "You had to get the word going that this movie is a lot better than No. 2. What you had was that people were lowering their expectations at the beginning. ... We might have started at a place significantly behind where No. 2 was, but as each day went on, we've played better than we anticipated".
AP