The latest Transformers movie outperformed industry expectations and cracked the elite club of movies premiering with $100 million in opening weekend sales in the U.S. and Canada.
Transformers: Age Of Extinction opened with $301.3 million in estimated sales in 37 market territories worldwide, according to studio figures.
It was not expected to do that well, said movie industry financial analyst Paul Degarabedian at Rentrak. And that “provides a much-needed boost of revenue to the 2014 movie season,” he said.
This was the first movie this year to vault into the hundred-million-dollar category, and thus the biggest opener of the year, Dergarabedian said.
22 Jump Street was in second place with $15.4 million, and How To Train You Dragon was third with $13.1 million.
Rounding out the 10 most-popular films in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, as estimated by the studios and collated by Rentrak, were Think Like A Man Too ($10.4 million), Maleficent ($8.2 million), Jersey Boys ($7.6 million), Edge Of Tomorrow ($5.2 million), Fault In Our Stars ($4.8 million), X-Men: Days Of Our Future $3.3 million, and Chef $1.7 million.