Okay, so you may or may not have read it: "Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix" took in $77.4 Million this weekend versus "Transformers"' take of a straight up $36 Million, according to the
studio estimates posted over at ENI. That's a bit of a cringe, right? Not really. Let me tell you why. Despite the extra day and July 4th most likely alleviating some of the pent up hype from moviegoers, "Transformers" still managed to grab only $7 Million less in its own
first weekend debut.
According to the estimates posted over at
Box Office Mojo, "Transformers" last weekend grabbed only approximately $500 less in per screen averages when compared to this week's #1 movie. "Transformers" opened at 4,011 screens with an average of $17,577 per screen last weekend while "Harry Potter" opened up at 4,285 screens with an average of $18,065.
That's not so bad, right? The wizard kids opened up to the largest screen rollouts since "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" opened up earlier this year.
Now, in even more positive thinking, "Transformers" is billed as an action film. In most action film performances, the second weekend sees approximately a 50% drop in gross box office receipts.
So while the $70.7 to $36 Million is a bit of a cringe, it's standard. And even then, this weekend's tally gave "Transformers" a gross total of
$223 Million in 10 days and $320.7
world-wide gross.
So what does this all mean? Well, while "Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix" did a great job at the box office, it didn't really outshine "Transformers" that much in the movie's first weekend performance. How the two match up next weekend remains to be seen but there's only one thing that "Transformers" should be considered: a success.
