It’s a good day to be a Tuesday. As you guys know, Transformers officially opened yesterday. It made a lot of money. To put this into perspective, the previous record for opening on a Tuesday was Pirates of the Caribbean 2. It took in an impressive $15.7 million on its opening day. $15.7 is great.
Transformers reportedly made $29.5 million… almost double.
Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. That doesn’t mean Transformers is going to break any other box office records… just that it had a more than solid opening day. We’ll get a better idea of how things will go once the first weekend is finished up. Our good friends over at Slashfilm give us this:
You add the $8 million that the (MONDAY) night screenings brought in, and you get a 28-hour number of $38 million. Not bad at all. The film seems to be maintaining a good buzz and is likely to make $140-$150 million in its first 7 days.
I guess there were a lot of people waiting to see Robots in disguise. Best movie of the year so far. :)
I don’t know if Transformers is the best movie of the year. Maybe the best movie released on July 4, 2007. Maybe…
Paramount are being a little disingenuous here with the figures though…
they are comparing transformers first day gross to pirates first “tuesday” gross…not pirates actual first day gross….Pirates 2 first day gross beats transformers…..so it is a little weird of them to be claiming some kind of box office record…by the time pirates reached its first tuesday it had been out for like 5 days….
John in Seattle you are totally right…Zodiac will be long remembered as an overlooked masterpiece. Amazing film…..
but naught I am afraid I disagree with you about spiderman 3….I did review what was on screen. A disaster served up on a plate of go fuck yourself straight from raimis kitchen of the damned…..awful awful film.
What can I say man, I just dont share your opinion. I thought they worked.
But I wouldnt go around trying to say people walking out as proof vs. Transformers – because in my sparse theater a family of 5 sitting in front of me walked out of TF and did not return, because the kids said they were bored. I agree with those kids, it was boring – however them walking out shouldnt be used as paramount.
I really cant see eye to eye with someone who could pick apart SM3 so much but think Transformers was anything resembling a good movie. it just aint gonna happen. TF is getting a free pass for shit light years beyond what people raked SM3 over the rails for. You dont want to see Parker dancing? Well some people dont want to see giant robots hiding outside a house knocking over plants.
I guess the drivel can be put under the dancing, the standing beside the phones, too many unnecessary scenes with Aunt May, MJ acting childish, Peter kissing the blonde, god I dunno, let’s just say I didn’t like the story full stop. The ‘crisis’ scene was overdone and just not creative. We have seen MJ hanging from the building in the 1st 2 movies, do we need another one? I guess it gives Spidey a chance to fly in the air and show off his web.. Just didn’t make sense to me is all.
It’s not a trilogy? Oh wow. That I didn’t know *confused* Well yes it’s not as if Spidey plot is something that can be resolved, I just didn’t expect *that* execution of the story.
Opening day: in my country in my cinema. People here just don’t do that. Yet they did. I’m not emotionally attached, I wasn’t specifically expecting anything, and I am not an expert of comics or movies in any ways, but to me the movie got really boring halfway through because of what I thought was unnecessary scenes, ridiculous lines, unreasonable reactions of the characters. Peter kissing the blonde? Didn’t strike me as something PP would do- but then again I am not an expert in the comics.
Naught, if you want a better response, you’re going to have to talk about what made it drivel so I know on what grounds I have to defend.
to the questions that were there
“It’s a trilogy and what did it resolve?”
I dont think of it as a trilogy, I think of it as a third film with a few dwindling issues that carry over movie to movie. There has never been a big story arc over the first couple movies that had a logical conclusion, and I never walked into SM3 expecting one. I just wanted a generally self contained Spidey movie that was fun to watch.
“What made it a good movie?”
While I dont think SM3 is above SM2, i put it at least on par with SM1. Spiderman 3 is (by far) the funniest of the 3 films, it is the most bizarre of the 3 films, it has some of the best cinematography of the 3 films, the action scenes were great and some scenes were downright artful. I really enjoyed the Love Square plotline, especially John Franco’s hand in it. In other words, I don’t see why it was such a BAD movie in peoples eyes. The excuses I have heard dont make sense to me – dancing, “emo”, forgiveness, Aunt May and Mary Jane. The only one that DOES is too many villians, which I EXPECTED months before, dont understand why everyone else expected it wouldnt be this way, and wasnt prepared acccordingly.
“What does it say that half the cinema left 30 minutes before the movie is over, on opening day?”
I was in the cinema too, and I can certainly say I never noticed one person leave the cinema. But if they left, thats their problem. Half my crowd left before the second half of Grindhouse opening day, it doesnt mean I can assume they were AVOIDING Death Proof, for example. But I do have a couple theories that will probably apply to some people about their intense hatred for SM3
– they reviewed what they wanted from Spiderman 3 (lots of Venom, Dark Peter being actually dark [which would have probably made him ACTUALLY emo instead of just flipped hair] instead of whats on screen, because whats on screen is fine
– they are so emotionally attached to Spiderman that anything they dont like they will overreact to like crazy and take personally. I’ve done this with movies, its what John and Doug often do – it makes reviews and discussion more lively and passionate than the Filmspotting-style of just completely clinical analysis, but sometimes it leads to hyperbole. Its because of this that I find myself more often going back and realizign a lot of movies arent so bad, or are good in a different context if you expect different things from it. I think in the long run SPiderman 3 is going to win way more people over than lose – people will go back to it and realize its not so bad at all. Could be better, its by no means a perfect film, but for me it was perfectly entertaining.
I thought it was very good. It had terrific action, some funny moments, the CGI was amazing, Megan Fox I could look at for 24 hours straight, and it brought back memories of the good ole days as a kid. All in all very good.
And I agree with Alfie (*gasp*) – Zodiac was fantastic and will be the 2007 film that in 20 years people will look back and say “How could this NOT have won Best Picture?” “Were audiences in 2007 brain dead?”
No comment.
I dug Transformers for what it was… a great popcorn flick and a fun ride. It’s a GIANT ROBOT MOVIE so I wasn’t expecting great dialogue or plot – I expected 40-foot robots beating the crap out of each other. I got what I wanted…
Was the editing a little too “MTV FLASHY?” Yes.
Was the transforming more about showing a ton of metal pieces flying about without any real sense of where they were going or what they were doing? Yes…
I could nit pick all day… but it did what I expected and it was worth my 7 bucks.
BUT – Not by any means the greatest film this year. A truly great film transcends as entertainment, message, technical prowess, and artistic achievement. Transformers was very entertaining with a high level of tech love – but as message or art? Couldn’t be further…
We simply haven’t seen a movie (outside of Ratatouille) that fills that statement – and we all know a kiddie flick could NEVER be Best Picture…. :P
Cinema is not just a rollercoaster ride… IMHO anyway.
Please so not mistake my last post though…I fucking love transformers…its fucking awesome
Zodiac is fucking amazing john…you are crazy. Bay could only dream of making a film that comes even close to being as good as that…..
Transformers is awesome and I loved it but i hope people don’t get too carried away with the praise for it. It wouldn’t enter my all time top twenty action movie list thats for sure. I saw it again yesterday and while I enjoyed it a second time the “flaws” became way more apparent to me then before…just the little things that could have been better…like megan fox actins for instance…she is terrible and ruins every scene she is in….anyway
I agree with you about the audience reactions …..I have not been in a film that has the audience making so much noise all the way through…cheering and clapping…it is a good time at the movies…
Goon,
You know it’s funny that I typed a a reference to Spiderman 3 about the plot thing, but I erased it cause I thought “nah it’s gonna make things comlplicated, that argument has been over and done with, not worth it to start again”.
As it was, Spidey is about a guy struggling to be a superhero. There’s conflict to be addressed, and they did it poorly. It was never about the novelty of a guy in a suit who shoots webs and flies around the city. It’s a trilogy and what did it resolve? What made it a good movie? What does it say that half the cinema left 30 minutes before the movie is over, on opening day? What exactly did they do in Spidey 3 that makes it a better movie than TF? To me (and my 6 friends) it was boring, a drivel and I wanted so badly to throw my flip-flops at the screen, I wanted my money back actually. I loved Spidey 2, and if Spidey 3 was a good movie or redeeming in any way I wouldn’t dislike it so much. But I was not entertained, my eyes hurt from rolling so much, and I left the cinema feeling angry. Hate is a strong word. But pls tell me what did the movie accomplished, because you said people ignore the accomplishments in it. A movie has to be Hostel 2 for me to hate. I do not hate Spidey 3 but I will never watch it again. If you want to talk about expectations, this is Sam Raimi who produced Spidey 1 and 2 yes we expected better. X-men 3 was rife with action but I didn’t like it. You got what you expected from Spidey 3 and that’s good for you but it is not TF and people are not expecting the same thing. Hell, even my mom and 6 year old sister didn’t like Spidey 3. Of course, in their opinion the whole movie was just too much talking and kissing ;)
And finally, JEFF, someone who likes Frenzy! WOO HOO!!! I myself loved him, all the little things he did, I loved the scene when he was trying to hack the Air Force one but connection terminated and he slammed his head on the monitor – oh I loved him and I can’t say how much. He was the most useful, resourceful character. He’s like.. Macgyver.
hey john i saw transformers 3 times, 3 days in a row with all my freinds and family and this movie just never seems to get old for one second!!!!!!!!!! i tought almost all the dialouge and characters were great! and the fights were the best ive seen in years, yet for some reason many film critics are trying to shoot this movie down. their reviews make me wonder if they even watched the same movie as me! the only two critics we can really trust these days to give us a straight review are you guys at the movie blog and ebert!!!!!!! what are all these other guys smoking???
They should have made Optimus a Storm Cloud!!!!
John,
I know you comented at the top about ‘adding’ Monday’s figures to 29 million to make 38 million, BUT, did the Tuesday figures that were released, include Monday’s as well?
I know that all theatres had to transfer their Monday’s grosses & add them to Tuesday’s when they reported those figures to Paramount.
The number is impressive, but it’s more of a marketing message, than anything else. These so called ‘records’ that keep getting broken are a load of crap.
its probably already been said, im too lazy and tired to read all the posts
this is the best tuesday ever, pirates 15 mil wasnt an opening day.
still impressive for any tuesday though, it should play very solid days like this all the way throuigh the weekend i would think
Transformers was silly…entertainin as hell, but at the same time i didnt give a crap about the characters. The talking was shitty, well this what you get from a 250 million dollar budget, and im really not that impressed, it seems like they only care about special effects when that doesnt make a movie good. It was entertaining though, but Bay shows no skill in actually creating a character in a movie. Bay had so much money and wasted it, an overblown movie overall, 5 out of 10. Amazing special effects and good action but nothing else. Im sorry but you could make something better with all that money
its tiring how much you praise this movie john when it wasnt that great as a movie. Im praising the special effects though. I happen to know someone who is a CGI slave at george lucas’s studio who was doing special effects for this. Special effects dont make a movie good neither does over the top action that makes you giggle near the end at how ridiculous it is
Well, I guess I have to eat crow on this film making money. I know I had more than one conversation with you John at Toronto After Dark regarding this film. I said that I expected the film to ‘break’ even at best. Turns out I was majorly wrong on that. As it is going to make it’s production budget at the Box-Office probably by Monday Next Week. Oi!
also – OOPS, paid no attention to the window and thought this diverted conversation was in the middle of the D-War thread! HA! Dont I look stupid?
I saw Transformers today, and I didn’t like it. Probably one of the worst Michael Bay films ever! I say worst because he had all the material to make something GOOD, but failed miserably…and now he is probably going to f#ck up Prince of Persia. Apart from Zodiac, this is the summer of crappy movies.
actually, okay, I’ll let you have one more swipe at Spiderman 3, because I have to pick on this
“It was bad in every way.”
I remember you praising the Bruce Campbell scene. “bad in every way?” I mean this language is so overblown to me.
with all due respect John, above in the thread you seem to be saying WHY critics arent more on board with Transformers – I can only base whatever I say about why you dont like something based on what you say about the movie, you’ve said a lot about it and whatever I’ve said is my impression.
And I wont argue about it further because its not worth it, I’ve heard a couple hours worth of audio of you trashing it already. I knew the second you and Doug bashed the dancing scenes I knew we were nowhere near the same page. You disliking the movie isnt going to prevent me from buying it the second it comes on DVD, nor will you liking 300 and me finding it repetitive fake looking drivel after the first 45 minutes prevents you from liking it any less.
Can we get back to the Asian cinema discussion? because i’d rather hear your take on Asian cinema being treated like a genre, or the differences between the north american and asian audiences.
Hey Goon,
No no no no… I never one said a lot of people hating Spider-Man 3 “backs up” my opinion. Not at all. Film is subjective. I hated Blade Runner… everyone disagrees with me… but that doesn’t make my opinion any more or less valid.
I’m not “overblowing” my hatred for Spider-Man 3. I really honestly thought it was that pathetic crap tread of a movie. It was bad in every way. You see more redeeming qualities in the film.. and that’s great for you… but please don’t tell me WHY I hated it. That’s presumptuous. You’ll just have to accept that some other people saw it differently than you… and some saw it the same.
I could go on for a long time about why the Spiderman 3 hate was overblown, everything from ridiculous expectations to reviewing what people wanted vs what was there (i mean here you talk about what it was ‘supposed to do’), and especially how retarded the emo comparisions are given what Parker was actually doing.
you list “a lot of people hated the film” to back up yourself, but as we now see, Transformers has about the same critical response, and already quite a few people do not like it (just not you or anyone you know) and are possibly overblowing that hate too. Everything these days is either absolutely amazing or totally sucks for some people, and thats just sad. Regardless of anyones disappointment, that anyone would consider SM3 absolute crap, not recognizing many of the accomplishments in it, is overblown.
Hey Goon,
I see what you’re saying… BUT… the problems with SPider-Man 3 are legion.
There is a reason people loved Spider-Man 2 and Hated Spider-Man 3. Spider-Man 3 is filled to the brim with problems… Transformers isn’t. Yes, it’s not a “deep” plot… but it’s a good one. Transformers GIVES you want you want… Spider-Man 3 gave you 90 minutes of Mary Janes Career problems and Emo haircuts.
Transformers does what it does… and it does it VERY well
Spider-Man 3 didn’t do anything it was supposed to do, and did what it did piss poorly.
One more thing – even many of the ecastatic reviews (such as over at CinemaBlend) say the movie is ridiculous and retarded.
for a lot of critics they might indeed find it entertaining, but if it overall for them leans toward the latter, they will give it a lesser grade even if they had a good time.
I mean, I think Showgirls is one of the most entertaining movies ever made, its ridiculous, hilarious, and shot at such a pace that it never gets boring. But at the same time it would be hard to give it a glowing review. its a catch 22 of entertainment vs the traditional ideal of artistic merit
“Was TF really about plot at all.. TF is all about the novelty of robots fucking killing each other.”
I’m going to see TF tomorrow, and I hope its good, and I hope that I find it is lacking in plot that the action is enough to make up for it. However this excuse really irks me, to see people can write off so much for the sake of giant robots fighting but will nitpick say, Spiderman 3 to pieces. Would you take the excuse “Spiderman 3 is all about the novelty of a guy in a suit who shoots webs and flies around the city” at face value? I sure as hell wouldnt, so what gives TF the right?
I’m fine if something is so action packed that for them it makes up for other shortcomings, but dont tell other people that in a movie filled with 2 dimensional action characters that its wrong for people to ask for a plot, or pass off lack of plot as a strength.
Hey John,
I just want to touch on how you and Doug didn’t like Frenzy in the movie. I’ve seen the movie a few times now, and Frenzy is the one character that I love more and more, and can see how complete psychotic he is, which may have been what the writers were aiming for. Yes, to agree with Doug, Frenzy is a dangerous decepticon, but as for him being a poor character, or unlikable character, Frenzy’s role helped build a feeling of suspense that someone like Blackout or Devastator couldn’t, and also gave some funny comic relief, such as when he escapes off of Air Force One and climbs into Barricade and flips the bird to the people standing outside.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD SO READ ON AT OWN RISK
And not really a spoiler, but for anyone reading this that HASN’T seen the movie, make sure you stay through the first couple minutes of the final credits for 3 hidden scenes (2 with Sam’s parents and 1 with Starscream).
And finally, my prediction for Transformers 2, I’m feeling like we might see Galvatron and/or Unicron, Skywalk and Thundercracker, as well as Soundwave (who has already been confirmed and hopefully brings along Lazerbeak & Ravage ;) )
This movie is critic-proof. Critics don’t matter in the summertime. I saw it, I had a damn fun time, and I’ll see it again tomorrow.
Meiran from what I read from critics for the most part they do judge films on its own merits. Ok not all of them do but for the most part the best critics do judge them for what they seemingly promise to deliver. I mean take the Transporter movies I mean those films aren’t exactly very rich with great wirting or acting fot that matter yet Roger Ebert gave favorable reviews to both those films. He also gave Transformers a good solid review but he also called it a very dumb movie.
Also just because a movie delivers what it promises doesn’t mean it will be a good movie. If you listen to the description that Spielberg gave to War of the Worlds and then see the movie you will realize he gave you what he set out to do. The only problem is that it still didn’t make the movie great because the people and the Aliens weren’t intresting at all it was just similar to a Michael Bay film but only better in my opinion.
John,
Pirates 15.7 Million Tuesday was it’s 5th day of release(It made 55 mil on it’s 1st day, slightly better than Transformers). The Transformers $29.5 mil is impressive, but try to put thing in perspective. Who gives a shit on how much it makes. By the way, I can’t wait to see this movie!
TJ
Critics need to learn something very fundamental: a movie should be judged based on it’s OWN merits, not if you think it solves the ultimate question about life, the universe, and everything.
Critics hate movies that are just about having fun. Transformers delivered EXACTLY what it promised. Therefore, it was a success.
I’d go see it again if movies didn’t cost so dang much where I live. I was at the very first showing they had here though, as I promised I would be. I loved it.
Sure it COULD have been better, but as somebody with a degree in film, I pretty much think every movie COULD be better. I can’t think of a single one where I wouldn’t change something.
It is a TRANSFORMERS movie. If it has that much of a plot, will it make a *better* TF movie? I don’t get people who just can’t enjoy a big summer popcorn movie like this. Why blame us, people who know what to ask for and when, for the barage of shit coming out of Hollywood nowadays? Was TF really about plot at all.. TF is all about the novelty of robots fucking killing each other. You wanna see *prefect, deep* plot in a summer movie, then you are the one being unreasonable. Expecting Mozart out of Britney Spears?
Well, Michael Bay did earn the cynicism towards his filmmaking…
I mean, you cant particularly say you yourself had to overcome dislike of Bay coming in… you raved about “The Island” which was overall pretty much panned.
loved transformers, except for a few little things that bugged that shit out of me.
1. frenzy. this character could of been much better if it wasn’t gabbling retardedly everytime it was on screen.
2. the ending. i don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but my annoyance comes from a certain someone pushing a certain something into a certain someone and how fucking retarded it was to end like that.
If this is the best film of the year thus far, then 2007 has been a horrible year for movies thus far. It’s not, of course, but it would be darn close.
I am going to see it on my Imax and loose my mind.
John, I can’t believe you saw this 3 times already. I am thinking that for your sanity and legacy, you NEED to see this at least 20 times in the theatre, defeating the current record held by Phantom Menace.
This is great news… I caught it last night and man, I haven’t had that much fun in a theater in YEARS. Sure it wasn’t a perfect film, but god damn it was hella fun. I’m totally going to see it again this weekend.
Let’s hope for that sequel!
I’m not surprised. I went to see it yesterday and the theatre was packed here in Brampton. It was also so funny there was this guy beside me at one point in the movie where he was naming all the Autobots and Decepticons, so I’m pretty sure he used to watch the cartoons.
my complains about transformers are as followed:
1) Took a little too long get to them (but shia and fox made up for that)
2) not enough transformer battles (but more than expected and understandable)
3) the god awful product placement…i for one HATE big obvious product placement especially big obvious product placement that takes away from the movie. (no excuses)
4)bumble not being able to talk (although ultimately it was very funny it would have been better if we just had bumble bee talking and kicking more ass)
5) I would have rather heard the decepticons say HAIL MEGATRON! instead of reading it
but overall i fucking loved it! best movie yet indeed
It funny that even though it has a 59%, if you only count Cream of the Crop it has 72% on Rotten Tomatoes.
About how much money it made, that means it beat Bay’s last movie in two days
In response to the previous comment, the movie is what you would call a summer movie (big explosions and mindless fun). I saw the film Monday night, took my family and my wife actually enjoyed it and she doesn’t even know what Transformers are except that my son has a toy of it. Comparing the film to Spider-man 3 which I had really high expectations too, the Spider-man 3 was a pile of crapfest and I was expecting it to be the better of the two because of Sam Raimi. If I want to see an intelligent movie I’d go see something else, if I want to see things blow up and robots kicking each other’s arse I’d go see Transformers.
Hey Goon,
I predicted months ago that the RT rating would hover around %5o because so many critics and sites pre-determined that anything done in this movie with Bay at the helm would be crap.
I’m surprised the ratings are as high as they are for it. But one thing is for certain… I’ve seen the film 3 times now… and I have NEVER in my life heard crowds at movie theaters howl and cheer and erupt in spontaneous joy as much as at Transformers.
Let whatever critics say what they want…. then deafening cheers, roars and applause from those at the movie theaters says a lot more to me.
HEY KURT
LOVED Ratatouille
HotFuzz was really good… but kind over praised just a little (I think due to the fact that it’s Peg and Wright). I still liked it quite a bit.
Zodiac sucked unmeasurable amounts of ass
Uh. Goon. The film dipped below 60% on Rotten Tomatoes because the movie just isn’t that good. Frankly, it’s probably the CGI mayhem that is keeping the film above 20% which is where it belongs from a filmmaking point of view. It is impressive that the spectacle of the film (which IS Gorgeous) gives it a 30+% boost.
Story lines that go nowhere, characters that are beyond paper thin, music to compensate for real emotion, plot holes the size of continents…incompetent filmmaking which a sheen so bright it has blinded a lot of people.
It’s making huge coin though. So people will get what they ask for, more of these empty calorie circuses and fewer mid-budget original films.
Best movie of the year so far?
***I AM BAFFLED***
Hot Fuzz
Zodiac
Ratatouille
were three mainstream films that leave Transformers so far in the dust in terms of cinematic and entertainment.
Chalk it up to totally different tastes – like 180 degrees –
Transformers now dipped under 60 percent on rotten tomatoes… any theories why? its NOT just the older set who know nothing about the cartons…
Sorry,
But 15.7 million was their Tuesday gross AFTER the opening weekend.
They opened on Friday, July 7th and made $55,830,600.
This gross however, is still very impressive considering it was a Tuesday.
Either this or 300 for best movie of the year so far. Loved them both… would have to give a slight edge to Transformers just for nostalgia’s sake.