Box Office Mojo forecasts that the fourth installment of the Transformers franchise brought in nearly $150 million since its release by the end of Friday. The success represents a big win for Viacom Inc.’s (NASDAQ: VIA) Paramount Studios. It almost certainly will be the fifth film to cross the $200 million barrier this year.
Left behind this week is the new Melissa McCarthy comedy “Tammy,” which is likely to barely make forecasts. It was distributed by Time Warner Inc.’s (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros. and will be lucky to hit $30 million in ticket sales. For the balance of the candidates, according to Box Office Mojo, “Deliver Us From Evil and Earth to Echo tanked.”
Transformers still has a long way to go to reach anywhere close to the number one spot for the year.
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“Transformers: Age of Extinction” may have had a colossal first weekend based on ticket sales. However, it has a very long way to go to catch “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” in ticket sales for the year. The latest Captain America installment, produced by Walt Disney Co.’s (NYSE: DIS) Buena Vista, has posted total ticket sales of $227 million. It was released on April 4.
“Transformers: Age of Extinction” sold $138 million in its first week in theaters. However it is not unusual for ticket sales to drop 50% or more in the second week after release. Of course, the numbers could be worse. According to Box Office Mojo:
The fourth installment in the Transformers franchise opened just over $100 million this past weekend. That’s the fourth movie this Summer to debut north of $90 million (a new record). The other three all dropped at least 61 percent in their second frame; meanwhile, 2009′s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen received similarly poor reviews and fell 61 percent over the Fourth of July weekend. It’s likely that Age of Extinction winds up in the same range, which would put it just below $40 million.
Action movies continue to lead box office sales this year. Along with most recent Captain America and Transformers films, among the top ten highest grossing movies of the year are “X-Men: Days of Future Past” from Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (NYSE: FOX) at $225 million, “The Amazing Spider Man 2” from Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) at $200 million and “Godzilla” from Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. at $197 million.
The race for 2014 box office revenue to catch 2013 for the whole year is still a close one. Last year’s total was $10.9 billion. So far, the 2014 figure is $5.3 billion, without the critical data from July 4 weekend counted.
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