Philippine Sports and Entertainment Portal Online

LOS ANGELES, June 29, 2009 -- "Transformers 2" surprised media analysts and movie industry pundits to gross an estimated 201.2 million U.S. dollars since its release on Wednesday in North America, achieving the best five-day opening ever after "Dark Knight," preliminary figures showed Sunday.

The action sequel, produced by DreamWorks and distributed by Paramount, took in about 112 million dollars in the United States and Canada over the traditional three-day weekend, according to movie industry review website Hollywood.com.

Warner Bros.' "Dark Knight" grossed 203.8 million dollars in North America in its first five days last summer. The two films are now the only ones to ever achieve the 200-million-dollar box office mark in five days in Hollywood's history.

Meanwhile, "Transformers 2" was estimated to gross 387 million dollars worldwide through Sunday, over half of the 708-million- dollar global take for its predecessor, which opened two years ago.

Disney romance and comedy "The Proposal" was No. 2 at the weekend box office, with 18.5 million dollars over its second weekend in release.

In third place over the weekend was "The Hangover," a Warner Bros. comedy which was expected to take in 17.2 million dollars over the three-day period. The surprisingly successful film has grossed 183.2 million dollars in four weeks.
With 13 million dollars over the weekend, Disney/Pixar blockbuster "Up" has crossed the 250-million-dollar mark to become the year's top-grossing film in North America, while new release " My Sister's Keeper" from Warner Bros. was in fifth place with 12 million dollars this weekend.


Special Thanks to: DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures for the images used for this article