More money than meets the eye

Cannily staking out the Fourth of July holiday – AKA Independence Day – a time when Americaland’s denizens take time off work and throwing off the rule of us Brits – Transformers saw a solid first full day at the box office.

It’ll have six days (not including Monday evening’s launch) to gather in the dosh of families looking for some entertainment, with the first day’s total standing at an estimated $27.4 million – a record for a Tuesday launch. Including Monday night’s business, that means $36 million in the coffers from America alone, enough to buy all the Autobots a healthy round of Castrol GTX to celebrate.

The other release aiming to grab some business was the awful new Robin Williams comedy License To Wed. With terrible reviews and low buzz, it could only manage $2.2 million on its opening Tuesday.

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Meanwhile, the films that opened last weekend continued to do well, particularly Disney’s Ratatouille, proving it has strong legs with a $7.9 million Tuesday (with $62.4 million to date) and Die Hard 4.0, which held up and now has $57.1 million in the bank.

We’ll of course be reporting the weekend’s box office next Monday. Expect a certain robo-flavoured film to be leading the charts…