US Box Office Report - Juy 3rd - 5th 2009

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - $42.5M - $293.4M
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - $42.5M - $67.5M
3. Public Enemies - $26.1M - $41M
4. The Proposal - $12.7M - $94.2M
5. The Hangover - $10.4M - $204.1M
6. Up - $6.5M - $264.8M
7. My Sister's Keeper - $5.2M - $25.9M
8. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 - $2.5M - $58.4M
9. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - $2.1M - 167.7M
10. Year One - $2.1M - $38M

With this being a holiday weekend in the US and July 4th falling on a Saturday, takings will be reduced for that day but boosted slightly for the Friday and the Sunday. Furthermore, our two major new releases opened on Wednesday. Studio estimates have Transformers and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs opening with the same amount of money. It won't be until the actuals are released some time Monday that we'll see who takes the top spot.

After a record breaking start last weekend, including a final total of just over $200M, Transformers holds up much stronger than was expected in its second Friday on release, while also piling on the box office from the international market. From last Friday it was down around 50%, which is pretty impressive given how stunning its opening few days were (exceptionally heavily front loaded movies can often expect a much bigger second frame drop), but the weekend as a whole is down a sharper 60%. There's every chance it could have added a further $7-10M to that weekend take were it not for the aforementioned holiday Saturday. Internationally the film's take isn't sitting too far behind its domestic one, with a total global take (including its US tally) of over half a billion dollars in just over 2 weeks on general release. Even at this stage, it wouldn't really matter if the film fell hard next weekend because it's already survived both the opening weekend and a potentially nasty second frame.

Of the films in the top ten, the newly released Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs was probably most hurt by having a reduced Saturday. The third movie in the Ice Age series and the first to face a summer crowd got off to a strong start on Wednesday (which also explains its reduced weekend box office) beating Transformers for that day's top spot, while Thursday and Friday Transformers pulled just ahead. As mentioned last weekend, unlike the previous two movies, which opened in March, part 3 was chancing the dangerous summer ground, with big movies on all sides, including the still pretty sharp Up. Consequently its three day total is closer in line with the original movie than 2006's Ice Age: The Meltdown, which opened to $68M. On its side is a distinct lack of future competition, save for Harry Potter, which doesn't cater for the very young audience as well as Ice Age does, so it should have a few strong weekends before the release of G-Force and Aliens in the Attic. Currently, this is least well reviewed of the series, sitting on 45% at Rotten Tomatoes, compared to the 78% scored by the first film and 57% by the second.

After the box office disappoint of Miami Vice director Michael Mann returns in full swing with Public Enemies, a dramatisation of the life of bank robber John Dillinger, played by Johnny Depp, and the FBI agent put on trail, played by Christian Bale. Opening an r-rated action drama over the July 4th weekend might not have been seen as a wise move but the film has held up well against the two bigger movies this weekend and were it not for that low Saturday could easily have seen $30M+ for the weekend. Reviews on this were above average but not great, but word of mouth is said to be very strong, with many pegging it as Mann's best film since Heat. Next weekend the only major release is Bruno, which means Public Enemies stands itself in good stead for a respectable second frame drop.

The Proposal is off 31% in its third weekend of release as the Sandra Bullock/Ryan Reynolds comedy inches close to $100M. It's now Bullock's most successful film since 2000's Miss Congeniality and has yet to open in any major foreign territories, where it could easily see another $100M. Meanwhile, the super summer sleeper that is The Hangover crossed the $200M mark sometime on Saturday evening. It's now the second biggest R-rated comedy ever released and even in its fifth weekend was down just 38%.

Up is now the second most successful Pixar movie ever released, not bad for what was being deemed as one of Pixar's riskier releases. It's now heading toward $300M but took a bit of a knock from Ice Age 3 this weekend. It's unlikely to see the figure before leaving the top ten but this has been nothing short of (another) resounding success for Pixar and it still has over 95% of the world's markets awaiting the release of the film. My Sister's Keeper doesn't hold as well as The Proposal but given the production budget for this one was just $30M, it should end up turning in a tidy profit for Warners Bros.

The Taking of Pelham 123 might just manage one more weekend in the top ten but this was done before it ever started. It'll now look to its DVD release to recoup some of that $100M budget, along with the international market who are by and large still awaiting the release of the Denzel Washington/John Travolta thriller. Meanwhile, Night at the Museum sits on a respectable, global total of $365M and is seeing its last weekend in the top ten. Amazingly enough, Year One is set to leave the top ten with an even lower take than Land of the Lost and is still a long way short of its $60M budget!

In a very limited release (for now) is I Hate Valentine's Day, Nia Vardalos's second attempt in as many months to repeat the success witnessed with My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This time she's not only roped in Greek Wedding co-star John Corbett but also directed the film herself. Reviews weren't kind to this one and it'll be lucky to see an expansion anywhere near 1000 locations.