Battle at the Box Office 6/30

The Transformers franchise cemented itself as critic-proof this weekend by earning an estimated $100 million, the highest opening of the year by far and crushing everything like the robotic T-rex it features.  Despite the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score for a Michael Bay film, audiences came out in droves both in the US and worldwide, where the movie made another $201 million, including the biggest ever opening in China with over $90 million.  Final numbers are not out yet but it could potentially be the biggest movie in the franchise, which is currently Revenge of the Fallen at just over $108 million.  It’s also the best ever opening for Mark Wahlberg.

In a far, far distant second was 22 Jump St, which dropped 44% from last weekend and made another $15.4 million.  It’s passed the original with $139.8 million total for it’s three weeks out.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 continued to not quite live up the first film, dropping off another 47% and making $13.1 million, putting the movie at $121 million for it’s three weeks in theaters.  It might get to about $170 million total if it stays at this pace.

Think Like a Man Too and Maleficent rounded out the top 5 with $10.4 and $8.2 million respectively.

On the indie side of things, Chef starring Jon Favreau remained in the top in the top 10 with another $1.6 million while new release, Snowpiercer, had a solid opening of $162,100 in 8 theaters.  Hopefully it will expand to more theaters in the next few weeks as it sounds awesome and was being pushed by pretty much every critic and movie site as a smarter alternative to Transformers.

This Fourth of July’s releases seem kind of weak compared to the last few years, so Transformers will probably remain on top through the holiday weekend.