Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction became the first film of the year to debut with $100 million at the domestic box office, according to Rentrak.
The fourth installation outperformed Captain America: The Winter Soldier and its $95 million debut in April.
Not only was the robot action film prosperous domestically – in over 4,233 locations, with more than 350 of them showing in IMAX – it grossed an additional $201 million from 37 foreign markets, including a record $90 million from China. This totals out at $301.3 million from just its first debut weekend worldwide.
“This is the summer’s best chance at a $1 billion dollar film and after this weekend it’s well on its way to getting to that point,” said Phil Contrino, vice president and chief analyst at BoxOffice.com.
Though the Paramount Pictures summer blockbuster may have received a very low Rotten Tomatoes score, 17 percent from critics to be exact, it still successfully reached its record breaking goal as expected.
Audience members, who were more than 60 percent male, seemed to have disagreed with critics, as the film received an A minus CinemaScore. The new cast, with male lead Mark Wahlberg, has allowed the story to evolve and remain appealing to mass audiences.
“All of the new elements worked out great,” said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures. “Mark Wahlberg has taken on the leadership of the franchise and Michael [Bay] has re-energized this franchise.”
Moore continued to predict that the film would do well in the coming week leading into Independence Day.
“These movies have traditionally played over the Fourth of July holiday,” he said. “There’s lots of generational viewing, with parents watching them with their kids, so it feels like we should have a great ten or eleven days.”
In its third week of release, 22 Jump Street slid down to second place, taking in $15.4 million. DreamWorks Animation’s family fun movie How to Train Your Dragon 2 fell right below in third place with $13.1 million. Kevin Hart’s Think Like a Man Too dropped 65 percent in its second week, grossing $10.4 million in fourth place.
See what films made the top 10 list at the box office this weekend by clicking “Next”!
