Congratulations to the July 4th box office weekend winner: a blockbuster bit of entertainment in which Megan Fox (voiced by John Leguizamo) tangles with gold-toothed, jive-talking woolly mammoths that transform into gigantic explosions. Sound a bit confusing? It is! Come inside for a box office battle for the top spot that's murkier than a hastily thrown-together Wasilla press conference.
1. (tie)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Gross: $42,500,000 ($293,459,000)
Screens: 4,234 (PSA: $10,038)
Weeks: 2 (Change: -61%)
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Gross: $42,500,000 ($67,506,000)
Screens: 4,099 (PSA: $10,368)
Weeks: 1
Transformers: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Ice Age: Revenge of the Fallen (wait, did we get that right?) ended up neck-and-neck in final estimates; though Paramount is asserting that Transformers will be this weekend's likely winner, family-friendly Sundays tend to grant animated films a dose of comeback power. By tomorrow, we'll find who wanted it more.
3. Public Enemies
Gross: $26,172,000 ($41,044,000)
Screens: 3,334 (PSA: $7,850)
Weeks: 1
I could write something in this space about how $26.1 million is a pretty good haul for this DV period piece (and an excellent demonstration of Johnny Depp's post-Pirates drawing power), but you guys, BET is playing Michael Jackson's video for "You Rock My World" (you know, the one with Chris Tucker and Marlon Brando), and his face! His face! That is all.
4. The Proposal
Gross: $12,779,000 ($94,233,000)
Screens: 3,099 (PSA: $4,124)
Weeks: 3 (Change: -31.2%)
Congrats to you, Sandra Bullock: The Proposal is poised to be your biggest romcom ever, and as it passes $100 million this week, there's an outside chance it could slow to a stop just past Speed's $121 million gross, making it your biggest film period...
5. The Hangover
Gross: $10,415,000 ($204,197,000)
Screens: 3,070 (PSA: $3,393)
Weeks: 5 (Change: -38.8%)
...Still, it's no match for the bro-down hijinx of The Hangover, which this weekend topped the $200 million mark. To put things in perspective, Wedding Crashers had two big male stars plus a rising Rachel McAdams, and it finished up at $209 million. The Hangover has Ed Helms and a baby in sunglasses, and it's set to easily pass that amount. What have we learned? If someone would just greenlight a summer comedy starring Sandra Bullock, The Office's Brian Baumgartner, and a CG dog that wears a knit sweater and cracks racial epithets, we'd finally have our first $500 million weekend. Get on it, Hollywood brain trust!
[Figures: Box Office Mojo]