Transformers: Age of Extinction has taken in over $100 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, overtaking Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s $95M, breaking the record for highest box office opening of 2014.
Despite dreadful reviews, Transformers‘ fourth outing at the theater is primed to be the highest opening of 2014. The franchise’s previous installment, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, opened to $97M domestically and would later go on to pull in a massive $1.12 billion at the worldwide box office.
Director Michael Bay’s explosive franchise has won fans over yet again, or at least gotten them to show up at the theater in droves, as a $100+ million opening weekend is certainly nothing to scoff at. The film already has an estimated worldwide total of over $200 million.
Unfortunately, most believe he wasn’t able to even remotely recreate the magic captured in the first Transformers, which is often praised by fans of the source material. Check out our review if you have plans to see director Michael Bay’s new blockbuster.
It currently holds a 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, after falling from a 56% just two days prior. Even fans of the previous films are having a difficult time swallowing the latest installment, but that sure hasn’t kept them from showing up to see the blockbuster.
Transformers: Age of Extinction took in $52M at the domestic box office Friday, which includes the $8.75M it took in from Thursday night ticket sales. This puts the film on a crash course to set a record for 2014 box office opening weekends.
It’s also breaking foreign box office records, where it’s pulled in an estimated $90 million opening in China alone – making Transformers: Age of Extinction their largest opening weekend.
Related: Meet the new young actors starring in Transformers: Age of Extinction
China continues to be a massive market for American films and with Transformers 4’s use of popular Chinese actors, including Li Bingbing, it’s set to make a great deal of money in the country where the characters battled it out in for nearly 30 minutes.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which hit theaters in April, had been holding on to the #1 spot with its $95M domestic opening weekend until now. Experts felt that Captain America’s sequel had a strong hold on the top spot, mostly due to the fact that critics loved the film just as much as fans.
Marvel would later seal the deal by announcing a third film with the same directors even before the film pulled in its total of $710M worldwide. They also set the release date for May 6, 2016, pitting it against Warner Bros.’ highly anticipated Batman v Superman.
Michael Bay has already said that he has plans to make three Transformers films with Mark Wahlberg and his character’s daughter, played by Nicola Peltz, at the center of the story. So don’t expect this franchise to simply disappear considering it’s on the way to making over $1 billion worldwide as it rolls out into additional foreign markets.
We’ll have the final box office numbers Monday morning, but for now it looks as though Transformers: Age of Extinction has officially become the highest grossing weekend opening of 2014.
Michael Bay directed Transformers: Age of Extinction, which was written by Ehren Kruger, who wrote the last two Transformers’ films. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, T.J. Miller, Stanley Tucci, Sophia Myles, Li Bingbing and Kelsey Grammer.
Did you go to see Transformers: Age of Extinction at the theater this weekend?