It was never if but when -- and by how much -- Transformers: Dark of the Moons would affirm its bulky, sense-shattering supremacy at the holiday box office. After four days of preliminary evidence, its spacious margin of victory becomes ever clearer as the Independence Day frame tumbles further into history. Your weekend receipts are here.
1. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Gross: $97,400,000 ($162,125,000)
Screens: 4,013 (PSA: $24,271)
Weeks: 1
What more is there to really say about the tin-eared, gold-plated action franchise, launched for the third and possibly final (though with these kinds of numbers, don't count on it) time into the summer box-office stratosphere? Actually, has anyone heard from Rosie Huntington-Whiteley about any of this? Who was the last lead actress to make her screen debut to such a windfall? Even Megan Fox had a few movie parts before rolling into the first Transformers. This is a monumental achievement! Does she not have some saucy, stroppy quote to complement the wit and wisdom of Shia LaBeouf? Speak up, Rosie! Anyway, this is well off the pace from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which soaked up nearly $109 million in three days back in 2009 -- a relatively surprising showing considering Dark of the Moon's 3-D extras, or maybe not so surprising considering that Fallen was appalling, and there's only so much blockbuster PTSD a moviegoer can withstand every summer. Hacky, overloud actions have consequences! Anyway, the foreign crowds -- at $210 million and counting -- will pick it up. No tears for Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg and Co., please.
2. Cars 2
Gross: $25,112,000 ($116,043,000)
Screens: 4,115 (PSA: $6,103)
Weeks: 2 (change: -62%)
"We live in a world where there is a movie called Cars 2," wrote a Facebook friend of mine recently, getting to the basic, bracing truth that I overlooked while rationalizing what kind of money a movie called Cars 2 should be making in its second week... opposite a movie called Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Need you any more analysis? May I recommend a drink instead?
3. Bad Teacher
Gross: $14,100,000 ($59,546,000)
Screens: 3,049 (PSA: $4,624)
Weeks: 2 (change: 55.4%)
A third R-rated comedy in as many months is on its way to $100 million, with Horrible Bosses and The Change-Up still forthcoming this summer. Adults, represent!
4. Larry Crowne
Gross: $13,007,000 (new)
Screens: 2,973 (PSA: $4,375)
Weeks: 1
Adults, represent? What the hell happened here? What a brutal summer for the lurching '90s-era monoliths: Johnny Depp can't open The Tourist or make sense of half the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to which he's so lucratively if irretrievably shackled (see below); Tom Cruise is holding on for dear life in the Mission: Impossible 4_ trailer preceding another blockbuster epic about talking robot cars; even Cameron Diaz's contribution to Bad Teacher's performance is anyone's guess opposite Justin Timberlake and Jason Segel and the storm R-rated counterprogramming lust sweeping the box-office plains. (Brad Pitt is holding his own in Tree of Life, I suppose, huzzah.) And now... this: We've basically (finally?) gotten to the point where not even Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are a sure thing -- where even 45 years of combined Hollywood royalty can't ride out an aromatic storm surge of bad reviews and toxic word of mouth. Did something symbolically end this weekend in Hollywood, or is something else (hint) just getting underway?
5. Monte Carlo
Gross: $7,600,000 (new)
Screens: 2,473 (PSA: $3,073)
Weeks: 1
I've seen mid-'80s model Chevy Monte Carlos on blocks that can outperform this one. Try, try again, Leighton Meester.
13. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Gross: $2,155,000 ($233,703,000; worldwide cume, $1,007,703,000)
Screens: 1,473 (PSA: $1,463)
Weeks: 7 (change: -56.3%)
And just like that, Pirates 4 becomes the eighth film to exceed $1 billion in worldwide grosses. Fun fact: Depp is in three of them (Pirates 2 and 4 and Alice in Wonderland), and four of them (Avatar, Toy Story 3, Alice and Pirates 4) were released in 3-D. We're stuck with the format for a while -- don't let anyone persuade you to believe otherwise. Happy 4th?
[Numbers via Box Office Mojo]