Transformers stamp out Ratatouille's rats

By Scott Rosenberg Jul 9, 2007, 0:00 GMT

Our world will be transformed on July 4 when aliens make Earth their final battleground in “Transformers.” As the forces of evil seek the key to ultimate power, our last chance for survival rests in the hands of young Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf). For centuries, two races of robotic aliens - the Autobots and the Decepticons - have waged a war , with the fate of the universe at stake. When ...more

The mighty Transformer ‘bots beat out the culinary genius of Buena Vistas’s animated rats in Ratatouille as Transformers opened to $152.6 million in its first week - $67.6 this past weekend alone.

Transformers played in 4,011 theaters compared with the Ratatouille’s 3,940. Reports call Transformers' performance the best opening week ever for a non-sequel.

The interesting thing about the success of Transformers is how the movie is playing well across all demographics according to  Marvin Levy a spokesperson from DreamWorks.

According to Levy, business was good in Latino and African American markets and very surprisingly, females 25 and up have been very enthusiastic about the movie in their responses to exit polls.

Transformers is easily director Michael Bay’s best performing movie to date.  His top domestic grosser, Armageddon (1998), opening weekend take was only  $36,089,972 from 3,184 theaters.

Transformers cost approximately $150 million to make.

This weekend’s #2 ranked movie, Ratatouille dropped 38% from last week pulling in $29 million, bringing its total two week take to $109.5 million.

In third place this weekend, Bruce Willis as John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard, crashed 48% bringing in $17.4 million from 3,411 theaters. A Fox release, Die Hard 4's second release week saw its cume rise to $84,160,000.

Pic which cost approximately $110 million to produce opened strongest among the four Die Hard franchise movies taking in $33.4 million its opening weekend. However pic now is holding in third place in total franchise take, just above the original Die Hard (1988) at $83,008,852.

In 4th place, Warner Bros. License to Wed, which stars Robin Williams opened with sales of $10.4 million from 2,604 theaters.

Reports are that no one expected “License” to do that well given the competition at the box office.

In 5th place, Universal’s Evan Almighty dropped 46.4 % to fifth place – from third last week to take in $8.1 million from 3,460 locations.  Its total cume now stands at $78.1 million.

Pic was directed by Tom Shadyac and stars Steve Carell and Morgan Freeman.

Year-to-date sales have increased 3.1 percent to $4.96 billion, while attendance has fallen less than 1 percent.