2014 06 27 – Transformers: Age of Extinction

A weekend like the previous one leaves me scratching my head in confusion. I've got Think Like a Man Too perfectly, with just $ 35 per theater difference. The most plausible reason is I am that movie's audience. I like the first installment, I know why it is enjoyable, where its value for viewers comes from. I see that value is absent in the trailer. Then I got the numbers (no pun towards that site intended) right. I didn't do it completely conscious. I'm not sure why I lowered it by the exact number I did, but I have another movie to analyze and to discover all true reasons.

This weekend's movie doesn't look to be fitting my taste, but for me the fun is in thinking about shooting, not getting it right.

This weekend we have one massive opening.

FRIDAY: All shots!

MONDAY: Official number!

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WELCOME TO A FOURTH LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS: THE AMOUNT OF CRAP IN UNIVERSE MUST BE PRESERVED

This movie, Transformers: Age of Extinction, is an action PG-13 movie, from Paramount.

Getting Mark Wahlberg as a lead man, instead of a lead boy by Shia LaBoeuf, was a smart move. It changed the movie from a kid's pile of explosions to an action drama. However, changing Optimus Prime from a wise leader into a bearded version of Hannibal of The A-Team made it even, if not added another layer of crap in the universe.

Does anyone really care about indestructible robots? Their extinction? Human race during conflict on such a scale is a mere cannon fodder, a background trick that a lousy writers and directors try to play at us. Hoping abstract "destruction of a city" will evoke emotions and commitment. It does not. We enjoy destruction of cities (Godzilla!), because it is a symbol of our rat race lives. We hate them, and watching it crumble liberates us, if only for a brief moment.

Trying to look at it as a fan of the franchise, there is all it needs to be. We are provided with new robots, new paintings, new adversaries. Explosions are good. The previous movie, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, opened with $ 97,85 mln, $ 23,937 per every of 4088 theaters. This one gets more theaters, but its per theater number may be lower. That makes the final number similar.

Shots:

$ 120 mln  --  Andy Burns, BiffBamPop
$ 112 mln  --  Laremy Legel, RopeOfSilicon
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$ 107 mln  --  Sensei White Lotus, BreitBart
$ 104 mln  --  Gitesh Pandya, BoxOfficeGuru
$ 103,4 mln  --  Edward Douglas, ComingSoon
$ 101 mln  --  SaberToothDragon, BoxOfficeFrontier
$ 100,04 mln  --  the official weekend number of the movie  (4233 theaters, $ 23,633 per theater)

$ 100 mln  --  Mitch Metcalf, ShowBuzzDaily
$ 99 mln  --  Box Office team
$ 96 mln  --  Ray Subers, BoxOfficeMojo
$ 95,30 mln  --  Mario Ludwinski, USBOPredictions2014  (4233 theaters, $ 22,513 per theater)
$ 93 mln  --  C.S. Strowbridge, The-Numbers
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$ 80 mln  --  ThisIsNotMyName, BoxOfficePredictionsOnline

ScreenCrave has stopped publishing at all, not just box office predictions. I emailed Damon Houx to find out if he continues shooting. If I get some info from him, I will post his shot during the weekend.

Gitesh Pandya's site, BoxOfficeGuru.com, has some tech problems for quite a while. Gitesh didn't put anything on his Twitter as well. If I get some info from him...

UPDATE: Good thing, Google can translate pages even if they don't show in a normal way. I got Gitesh's shot of $ 104 mln.

Perri Nemiroff, of Shockya, stays in the same situation. If I get some info from her...

UPDATE: Perri confirmed by email she didn't shot this weekend.

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