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LOS ANGELES: Robots made fireworks at the box office this weekend, as “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” scored the biggest holiday blockbuster take on its opening weekend.
The weekend includes both the July 1 Canada Day holiday and July 4 US Independence Day holiday.
The third Transformers movie landed a record dollar 99 million, according to industry projections by box office tracker Exhibitor Relations, with analyst Paul Degerabedian saying that “great word of mouth propelled a five percent Saturday uptick” in takings.
The Paramount picture smashed past the previous holiday-weekend record holder, “Spider-Man 2,” which set a dollar 88.2 million benchmark for Independence Day weekend openings in 2004, according to studio estimates.
Another talking vehicle franchise, Pixar's “Cars 2” finished in second place over the weekend with dollar 24 million, bringing the film's overall earnings to dollar 109 million to date.
“Larry Crowne” brought together Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks for third place on its opening weekend, tying third overall in ticket sales with “Bad Teacher,” starring Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz, as they both brought in dollar 14 million each.
In fifth was romantic comedy “Monte Carlo,” starring teen sensation Selena Gomez, which played well to tween girls in North America and made dollar 8.5 million on its debut weekend.
Action spectacular “Super 8” from J.J. Abrams landed in sixth with dollar 7.5 million in projected sales, and super hero flick “Green Lantern” dimmed to seventh place and dollar 6 million in receipts.
Waddling into eighth place Jim Carrey-starring “Mr. Popper's Penguins” with dollar 5 million, raucous comedy “Bridesmaids” continued to hang in the top ten with dollar 3.25 million in ninth place and Woody Allen's romantic fantasy “Midnight in Paris” rounded out the top ten with estimated dollar 3 million take.
