'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' had a $200 million-plus opening weekend. (AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — After just five days, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is halfway to $400 million domestically, a box-office milestone only eight other movies have reached. If it climbs that high, the Transformers sequel will be by far the worst-reviewed movie ever to make the $400 million club.
Critics and mainstream crowds often disagree, but Revenge of the Fallen sets a new standard for the gulf between what reviewers and mass audiences like.
The movie pulled in $201.2 million since opening Wednesday, the second-best result for a movie in its first five days, just behind “The Dark Knight” with $203.8 million. Even after its whopping $60.6 million opening day, Revenge of the Fallen was packing theaters, a sign that unlike critics, who mostly hated the movie, audiences felt they were getting their money’s worth and were giving the flick good word of mouth.
Critics “forget what the goal of the movie was. The goal of the movie is to entertain and have fun,” said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount, which is distributing Transformers for DreamWorks. “What the audience tells us is, ‘We couldn’t be more entertained and having more fun.’ They kind of roll their eyes at the critics and say, ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about.’ “
According to Paramount’s exit polls, 91 percent of the audience thought the sequel was as good as or better than the first Transformers, which received far better reviews.
Most of Hollywood’s all-time biggest hits are accompanied by either good or at least passable reviews, and some can be among the year’s most-acclaimed, such as this year’s Up and Star Trek and last year’s The Dark Knight, WALL-E and Iron Man.
Not so for the new Transformers. On Rottentomatoes.com, a Web site that compiles critics’ opinions, the sequel had only 38 positive reviews out of 187, a lowly 20 percent rating usually reserved for box-office duds.
Many critics who liked the movie had reservations, praising the movie’s visual effects and relentless action but generally advising audiences to check their brains at the door.
The critical drubbing was a new low for Transformers director Michael Bay, never a favorite among professional movie reviewers. But he has long been a favorite among fans, scoring hits with the first Transformers and such flicks as Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys II and The Rock.
Like blockbuster maestro Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced many of Bay’s movies, the director aims to please audiences, not critics.
“He really had blinders on when it comes to what he believed the picture needs to be, and then he executed it,” said Brad Grey, Paramount chairman and chief executive officer. “He’s a director who is the definition of blockbuster at this point. His grosses speak for themselves.”
Bay’s previous worst score on Rottentomatoes was 23 percent for Bad Boys II, followed by 25 percent for Pearl Harbor. Even his commercial flop The Island rated well above the Transformers sequel, with 40 percent positive reviews.
Of the eight movies that have grossed more than $400 million domestically, four scored 90 percent or higher on Rottentomatoes: The Dark Knight, Spider-Man, E.T. the Extra-terrestrial and Star Wars. Two others, Shrek 2 and Titanic, topped 80 percent.
The other two had mixed reviews but still came in far higher than Revenge of the Fallen, with Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace scoring 63 percent and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest rating 53 percent.
This year’s biggest hits so far had terrific scores, Up with 97 percent and Star Trek with 95 percent. Both movies have grossed about $250 million, a number the Transformers sequel will soar past by next weekend.
On Metacritic.com, a site that assigns ratings of zero to 100 based on movie reviews, Revenge of the Fallen received a 36, a lowly score barely above those given to recent box-office duds Year One and Land of the Lost.
Bay has said that if there is a third Transformers movie, he would like to come back for it. But his next project could be far quieter than the explosions and action for which he is known.
“I’ve got to take a little time off from the robot world,” Bay said before the movie opened. “I’ve got to do something totally different. It’s enough of this for right now. I keep saying I’m going to do my small movie. I’ve got one I want to do.”
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How about they count number of tickets sold rather than $$? As the price continuously goes up, the revenues will always increase.
Considering Star Trek & Up got great critic reviews & grossed around $250 Million each so far while Transformers 2 just came out with poor critic reviews yet has already made over $200 Million it’s obvious that the critics & the people have different ideas of what makes a film good. We don’t need to be a brilliant to enjoy a film, we just need to enjoy it. Is it fun? Do you walk out happier than when you went in? For a time, did you escape your reality to visit someplace else? A lot of times that’s all we want. Meaning is good – but not at the expense of enjoyment.
Tickets sold vs $$ made is a good point. The original Star Wars was a major grossing film when it first came out yet tickets ranged from around $3-$6, current films cost around $6-$10 with the films appearing on Imax around $14. That means the older films may have sold twice as many tickets to make half the money of todays films.
Critics “forget what the goal of the movie was. The goal of the movie is to entertain and have fun,” said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount, which is distributing Transformers for DreamWorks. “What the audience tells us is, ‘We couldn’t be more entertained and having more fun.’ They kind of roll their eyes at the critics and say, ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about.’ “
OK, well, the problem as I see it is that people are, at this point, so incredibly dumb that they are no longer capable of detecting that the things they like are poorly done. They are rather like a little kid who, at his young age, thinks that Barney the Dinosaur is a good actor. The kid gets old enough and he “outgrows” Barney, and stops being interested and liking Barney without really knowing why.
Well, the real reason is that he matures and starts to understand, even on just a subconscious level, that Barney is a bad actor, and the plots are puerile and dumb, etc.
What we’re seeing with the people who defend movies because they’re “entertaining” without being “GOOD” is a regression: people are being dumbed-down by the pablum that streams out of a Hollywood machine populated by hacks. As a result, they don’t know truly good movies from bad, or bad ones from good, because they’ve never actually seen good ones, or been taught what should differentiate them from each other.
Its Transformers, its not saving private ryan- revenge of the soldiers, do the crtics really think there was going to be great acting in a big smash mouth summer blockbuster movie.
the first movie had poor acting in it who cares it was about cars turning into robots and fighting. these types of movies are for people to go and sit for 2hrs 40mins and go WOW, AAAAh OOOOH that was cool.
critics need to waks up and see what it is A special affects movie.
I’m mean come on we gave Slumdog Millionair all kinds of awards and that movie was pathetic, please.