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Bottom line, the studio/Bay/whoever, advertised the crap out of this thing and it looks awesome. My wife has no love for Transformers, but based on the trailers, it's a must-see for her. THIS is why it went crazy...Michael Bay made a film that looks like good ole fashioned summer-time fun and fanboys and regular folks alike went nuts for it.

I say bully for all of them, and if it is as much fun as it looks, I hope they keep making movies like this. Where the hell is my G-Force movie?!?!?!?

Max Braden: I had to look twice at those numbers, which are confusing because of the headscratching Monday-night release. The three-day weekend $67 million falls into familiar big action summer box office territory. I have trouble believing Transformers was a hit based on being an '80s property. I owned the Megatron toy when I was younger but don't remember much about the show, and that basis had no draw for me to go see the movie. Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles grossed over $135 million in 1990, but the revised TMNT released this year topped out at $54 million. Likewise, both Transformers and Die Hard 4 are both actioners, but Die Hard only opened with half that of Transformer's weekend. I think it was the simple, raw action that pulled viewers in, as well as the younger crowd for Shia LaBeouf vs. the older Bruce Willis (despite Justin Long). I think the number will help prop up upcoming action movies like The Bourne Ultimatum and Rush Hour 3. If executives are thinking "mine the '80s for more properties!" then we may see Knight Rider on screens sooner than necessary. Not to mention that it recovers Bay from his own flop with The Island.

It made sixty...150 million dollars. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Kim Hollis: Where do you rank this performance among 2007's list of mega-blockbusters?

Michael Bentley: Ask again after next weekend. I'm curious to see how much it drops without the benefit of a major holiday week.

Jim Van Nest: I have to rank the opening pretty high, if only for the "are you frickin kidding me?" aspect. I never expected it to have a seven-day run like that, and I'd wager few people actually did. I'd say that setting the kind of numbers it did for Tuesday and Wednesday...a traditional weekend opening would have been a pretty impressive figure, especially considering it's a non-sequel that honestly seemed like such a fanboy niche film only six to eight months ago. The widespread appeal of the movie, to me, anyway, is shocking.

David Mumpower: Given that Transformers does not have the benefit of a sequel in any real sense of the world (although Transformers: The Movie did earn about $5.8 million back in 1986), I think that this is the most impressive opening weekend of the year of anything save for Spider-Man 3. 300 would be the only other title in the conversation for me, but the reality is that while it technically opened slightly larger ($70.9 million versus $67.6 million), I have difficulty separating the weekend from the week. Transformers had a six and a half day release, and I think it's counter-intuitive to dismiss what happened prior to the weekend. What it earned this week, $152.5 million, is over $10 million more than 300 managed in its first two weeks. In fact, it's within striking range of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End's $167.2 million in its first six days and even surpasses Shrek the Third's first week of $150.3 million. This is a non-sequel, yet it is matching/outperforming sequels to some of the best box office performers of all time.

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