Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen posts the best Wednesday midnight gross ever!
With $16 million in Wednesday 12:01AM screenings, the second installment of the Paramount franchise has transformed dollars into movie tickets as summertime moviegoers flocked to theaters in the wee hours to see the latest Michael Bay extravaganza.
To put some perspective on the scale of this achievement, a little bit of background is in order. Last year, The Dark Knight earned $18.5 million in Friday 12:01AM screenings and went on to post the biggest single-day gross in box-office history with an mind-bending $67.1 million!
On Thursday, May 19, 2005, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith grossed $16.9 million in midnight Star Wars-induced dollars and went on to earn $50 million for the day.
Using calculated box-office logic, we can extrapolate that with $16 million in midnight madness for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a single-day Wednesday gross for the film could easily land in the $50 million range and secure it a spot as generating the biggest single-day Wednesday gross of all-time beating the previous record holder, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which earned $44.2 million on its debut Wednesday (which included $12 million in fan-crazed Potter dollars from its midnight screenings on Wednesday, July 7, 2007).
Carried to the next logical extreme, the potential for a first five-day (Wednesday through Sunday) take exceeding $150 million and potentially unseating Spider-man 2 as the five-day Wednesday debut champ with its incredible $152.4 million haul, is clearly within reach for Optimus Prime and his crew of Autobots as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen continues to dominate the multiplex now and in the days to come.
