They should have released it before Potter in the U.K. It is going to be tough taking on The Simpsons and OOTP's spillover buisness.

Actaully i think Transformers might take the top spot cheaply.

You know very well they will add the preview gross to this weekends gross and hence make it look bigger than it actually will be.

I am so happy The Simpsons is doing so well overseas.

How many days of previews did it have///

3 days it did $7.7 million. It dropped considerably on 3rd day while simpsons had previews for 2 days and did 9 million.

In Australia, Simsons did brillaintly on Saturday..........this one is going to be huge.......

unfortunately same cannot be said for north america. It seems like it would drop somehwere between 20-27% on saturday.

Overseas it is mostly increasing on saturday.

FRANCE - Opening Day

Admissions

Transformers opens below Simpsons, but still a solid Wednesday opening nontheless.

Spiderman 3 - 804,345 adms. (Paris = 175,334 - 778 TC)
Harry Potter 5: OOTP - 720,000 adms. (920 TC/1060p)
Pirates Of The Caribbean 3: At World’s End - 426,256 adms. (783 TC)
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines - 340.263 adms. (849 TC)
Mission Impossible 2 - 338.332 adms. (721 TC)
X-Men 3: The Last Stand - 331,000 adms. (incl. 35,000 adms. p/v - Paris = 65,000 adms. - 756 TC/800p)
The Matrix: Revolutions - 314.137 adms. (859 TC)
Independence Day - 314.080 adms. (640 TC)
The Simpsons Movie - 280,942 adms.
Transformers - 259,387 adms.
The Da Vinci Code - 232,898 adms. (885 TC)
X-Men 1 - 195,339 adms. (597 TC)
The Hulk - 183,558 adms. (796 TC)


USD

Down on WOTWs, though this sorta opening day would point to an opening 5-Day of around $9m-$10m.

Spiderman 3 - $6.81m (€5.01m Tue - 778)
The Matrix: Reloaded - $2.9m (709tc/894p)
The Simpsons Movie - $2.9m (942)
War Of The Worlds - $2.5m (720 TC)
Transformers - $2.1m (Wed - 850)
The Matrix: Revolutions - $2m (902p)
The Da Vinci Code - $1.9m (232,898 adms. - 885 TC)
Armageddon - $1.5m (635 TC)
King Kong - $1.2m (780 TC)
Superman Returns - $1.1m (146,009 adms. - 854p)
Batman Begins - $839,706

From Variety's article:

U.K. - $16.6m
France - $6.3m
South Korea - $1.6m ($48m total)
Week overall - $42m

In China, it took a hit from Mr. Bean's Holiday. Haven't seen a number yet.

Hahahaha. That sounds hilarious.

TAIPEI (TWD$) - Weekend 5

Transformers refuses to say die.....another brilliant hold, down just 35%. I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry flopped.

Lord Of The Rings: ROTK - 173,798,530 (3,464,450, -45.3%) - 15
Transformers - 168,788,824 (5,015,569, -34.8%) - 18
Harry Potter 4: GOF -161,376,300 (3,193,990, -62.8%) - 19
The Day After Tomorrow - 162,685,240 (5,710,490, -30.3%) - 17
Harry Potter 2: COS - 154,351,090 (4,307,240, -53.2%) - 16
Lord Of The Rings: TTT - 148,353,225 (3,704,160, -29.4%) - 17
Pirates Of The Caribbean 3: At World’s End - 147,254,851 (1,514,319, -56.2%) - 18
Kung Fu Hustle - 145,905,365 (1,857,880, -51.7%) - 18
Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest - 145,026,120 (1,786,221, -60.3%)
The Da Vinci Code - 136,417,182 (1,609,422, -56.4%) - 19
Spiderman 2 - 131,471,435 (985,540, -67.5%) - 16
Mr. And Mrs. Smith - 126,706,115 (2,240,800, -37.2%) - 16
Harry Potter 3: POA - 125,479,280 (3,023,710, -52.7%) - 18
Spiderman 3 - 123,741,435 (1,519,214, -46.1%) - 10
Mission Impossible 3 - 114,619,418 (2,562,403, -29.6%) - 18
King Kong - 113,103,430 (1,599,800, -46.9%) - 18
War Of The Worlds - 111,705,660 (573,370, -63.4%) - 7

Transformers has now become the largest flick in Taipei since TDAT, it will pass the disaster flick in 2 or so weeks. Transformers is definately looking at 190m TWD give or take 5m TWD. Absolutely huge...

ALL-TIME (1996 onwards)

Titanic (1997) - 387,787,110
Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World (1997) - 213,165,160
Lord Of The Rings: ROTK (2003) - 200,046,545
Independence Day (1996) - 187,755,640
The Day After Tomorrow (2004) - 181,388,280
Mission Impossible 2 (2000) - 173,282,865
Transformers (2007) - 168,788,824
Harry Potter 4: GOF (2005) - 168,801,020
The Mummy Returns (2001) - 167,838,885
Lord Of The Rings: TTT (2002) - 163,877,610
Harry Potter 2: COS (2002) - 162,361,640
Harry Potter 1: PS (2001) - 159,983,475
Armageddon (1998) - 157,862,070
Pirates Of The Caribbean 3: At World’s End (2007) - 150,111,748
Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) - 149,523,654

Pity that Transformer's overall opening weekend in Hong Kong isn't that mega....

Third week in China (Mr. Bean was actually a non-factor):

1,589,403 admissions (-41%), 48m RMB, $6.35m

Total now sits at $31m (235m RMB).

never saw any foreign film made this much in China..

Seems like it'll make between $35m and $40m in China. Huge!

It's currently sitting at #3 on the all-time charts, behind Titanic's (2part gross) and Curse of the Golden Flower. It has already beaten Hero and Kung Fu Hustle.

It'll be fantastic if it can get to $40m, it'll be only the 2nd movie to do so.

Titanic - $44m (RMB350m)
Curse Of The Golden Flower - $37.5m
Transofmrers - $31m
Hero - $31m (RMB250m)
Kung Fu Hustle - $20.1m
Spiderman 3 - $18.6m

Variety Projections...................

Overseas battle

On the foreign front, overall biz should stay sizzling, with "The Simpsons Movie" expected to post its second victory. This weekend will see launches in Denmark, India, Mexico and Poland.

Rivals pics aren't standing still, with Par's "Transformers" likely to provide the most beefy numbers among the rest of the pack. The actioner expands into Germany and Japan; first-day German biz totaled a solid $1.2 million on Wednesday.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" should remain a significant player in its fourth frame, drawing about $25 million. Pic is likely to become the 26th of all time to hit the $500 million mark in foreign grosses this weekend.

Disney's continuing its gradual widening of "Ratatouille" with launches in Benelux, France, Spain and Taiwan. Toon's already tapped 18 foreign markets for $62 million.

Universal's holding back on releasing "The Bourne Ultimatum" internationally until next weekend, when it launches in eight markets including Hong Kong and Taiwan. Instead, U's expanding two summer comedies -- "Evan Almighty" moves into its first major markets by going into Brazil, Mexico, Scandinavia and the U.K.; "Knocked Up" goes into Bulgaria and Ukraine.

Other launches include "License to Wed" in Australia and Taiwan, "Live Free or Die Hard" in Brazil, "Ocean's Thirteen" in Argentina and "Hairspray" in the Philippines, Portugal and Thailand. South Korean monster pic "D-War" made a major splash with $2.9 million in its opening day Thursday.

Transformers opens above WOTWs...that movie ended up with $7.344m over the 5-Day opening. King Kong on the other hand, ended up with $6.377m over the 4-Days. Revolutions which had a bigger opening day than Transformers, did $8m over 4-Days.

So Transformers looks to have an opening around $7m......which would put it above 300 ($6.687M) but below Die Hard 4 ($7.618m).

This movie is definately not doing as well in Europe, we know that, but you can't help but feel that if this movie was stronger in Europe...it would've toasted Shrek 3 Overseas.

The Da Vinci Code - $3.5m (270,000 adms. - 878 TC/1154p)
Star Wars 2: AOTC - $2.3m (611,406 adms. - 1038 TC)
Kingdom Of Heaven - $2.1m (incl. Wed p/v)
The Matrix: Reloaded - $1.6m+
The Matrix: Revolutions - $1.6m (759p/900sc)
Spiderman 1 - $1.6m
Transformers - $1.2m (Wed)
War Of The Worlds - $754,490 (105,179 adms. - 837 TC)
King Kong - $664,000 (739 TC)
Garfield: The Movie - $655,123

Unfortunately, nice weather spoiled everything in Germany this weekend...
TRANSFORMERS looks to open between 575k-600k tix in five days, far below WAR OF THE WORLDS (943,186 tix in five days). It won't even beat the second weekend of SIMPSONS which is headed to 600k-625k in four days...

That's pretty sad then, looks like $5m opening 5-Day....terrible start...

Even Japan is not looking that crash hot at the momment, with no previews it might not break $10m on opening weekend...

Oh my...

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!

Tranformers did only $5.3 million OW in japan for #1 spot. Hell even I ROBOT did that LOL and that released in september!!!

Finally justice has been served. This movie doesn't deserve to make the kind of money it is making. I am happy it won't reach those $80+ million numbers everyone here was hoping for in japan.

It seems like japanese don't like movies in which there is a giant monkey, robots or anything like that. They only support one giant monster i.e. GODZILLA.

5.3 m $ in Japan on OW. That's disappointing

HAHAHAHAHAHAA!!

so in germany the movie couldn't do well as it could have. Hell even TSM dropped 51% from last weekend due to the weather.

I hope it can hold on next weekend. Do u think TSM can crack $500 million worldwide. It still has some big markets but unless the movie doesn't crack $200 million by thursday overseas and doesn't do another 24+ million next weekend overseas I don't see it hitting 500 million worldwide.

I knew you were all shooting too high when it comes to Japan. $80m, even $100m? Yeah, right...

What total can we expect with that opening? What do the experts say, $35m?

Hope it can still make it to $400m OS, which was my prediction, but at the moment $380m seems more likely.