Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen posted the best-ever Wednesday opening with a first-day gross of $60 million at more than 4,200 theaters.
The total on the Michael Bay-directed sequel, which stars Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson, includes about $16 million from midnight shows ‘also a Wednesday record.
The opening day gross for the film, loaded with VFX supervised by ILM’s Scott Farrar, was second only to that of The Dark Knight, which took in $67 million on its opening day, a Friday.
With Transformers expected to make a run at Spider-Man 2‘s five-day opening record of $152 million, the only other major studio release this week is the Warner Bros. drama My Sister’s Keeper, starring Cameron Diaz, Alec Baldwin and Abigail Breslin.
Animation is set to return to the forefront on Wednesday, with the pre-July Fourth holiday weekend release of Ice Age; Dawn of the Dinosaurs at more than 4,000 theaters. It will square off against Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, which stars Christian Bale and Johnny Depp as John Dillinger.
