#
 Title the Title!
 Weekend the Total!
 Per the Screen!
 Film the Total!
1
 Transformers $67,600,000 $16,853 $152,500,000
2
 Ratatouille $29,029,000 (-38.3%) $7,367 $109,546,000
3
 Live Freebreeze or Dye Hard $17,400,000 (-47.9%) $5,101
$84,160,000
4
 License to Wed $10,400,000 $3,993 $17,816,000
5
 Evan Almighty $8,114,000 (-46.4%) $2,345 $78,101,000
6
 1408
 $7,140,000 (-33.0%) $2,713 $53,789,000
7
 Knocked Up $5,159,000 (-29.4%) $2,324 $132,026,000
8
 Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer $4,150,000 (-54.6%) $1,585 $123,791,000
9
 Sicko $3,650,000 (-18.9%) $5,199 $11,502,000
10
 Ocean’s Thirteen $3,525,000 (-42.1%) $1,676 $109,145,000


Is there really more than meets the eye? Transformers, which cost $150, has now effectively grossed its budget. Knocked Up did that in its first weekend, but it has since gone on to quadruple that number – and that ain’t happening with these robots in disguise. Spider-Man 3 opened to around the same number, but did so in three days, not six and a half. Transformers should play strong until Harry Potter, but that’s on Wednesday, and there’s probably going to be evening shows on that as well. How it holds after that is up in the air, but… it’s gone over with the crowds, people like it, and it’s got a strong third act. People are going to go back, even if Michael Bay directs this formula picture with all the emotional investment of a Hustler photo shoot. I can’t say I blame him, everyone’s coming for the giant robots, the rest is just padding.

But at this point it would be shocking if Transformers didn’t get to $300 million, and – with SM3 and the rest of the May Three only just getting over the $300 mark, it’s quite possible that Transformers could be the big winner this summer. Could.

Ratatouille, which opened soft for a Pixar film, is showing great legs, and will get over $200 Million. Cars got to $244, and I’m betting that word of mouth will get the Rat past that, if only just. Word on the new Potter is mixed, and it’ll be interesting to see if the new and final Potter book helps or hurts.

DHINO isn’t dead on the vine, and it’s not taking it in the shorts like FF2 is, but next week we should see strong numbers from Potter, Transformers and Ratatouille, so it’s not going to have a lot of life left in the weeks to come. They should crack $100, which is something of a victory.

Who the fuck went to see License to Wed? It’s not like Transformers or Die Hard 4 are R rated, so it’s not like kids had to buy tickets of it to see something. Unless that’s Knocked Up money. Which would be awesome. That LtW has done nearly eighteen million dollars in business is shameful, unless Warner Brothers instituted that "free handjobs" policy I recommended in ‘aught two.

If Evan Almighty actually does get to $100, will anyone care? I’ve got to give props to Universal for not turning this into a big thing. It’s like they knew when the viewing public got the dinner reservations that it was break-up time, and maybe the knowledge that we were going to a public place to do it made them realize how they’d been acting lately, so they took it well, even if they stopped and bought three bottles of Merlot and some Tylenol PM on the way home.

1408 is playing really, really well. Then again, so is Knocked Up, which could get within spitting distance of $150. Whereas FF2 will only get to $130, and then die. Sicko‘s isn’t performing all that healthy at the moment, though there has been a meme of "socialized medicine can lead to terrorism" coming from the far right, which may have a little something to do with this movie. Ocean’s Thirteen will be bowing out of the top ten, and in the 11 slot, Pirates 3 crosses the $300 mark. Bully, I say, bully.

nobody, not even the rain has such small hands