Transformers: The Last Knight’ Kicks Off Tuesday Night With $5.5M

Paramount’s Transformers: The Last Knight drew $5.5 million in previews Tuesday night from an overall count of 3,000 locations. The Michael Bay-directed fifthquel opens today in 4,069 locations.
Last Knight started at 7 PM in 546 locations with “Optimus Prime Time” playing exclusively in 3D Imax and RealD. Then at 8 PM, the Mark Wahlberg film moved up to 3,000 sites. The projection is that Last Knight pulls in an estimated $70M in five days,
which would be the lowest start for any Transformers movie.

Paramount previewed the film quite late for the press, with a 4 PM PST review embargo yesterday and getting splashed with a 17% Rotten Tomatoes score, so far the lowest in the series. Critics have never enjoyed Bay’s Transformers going back to the first title (57% Rotten), but the Hasbro toy films always proved critic-proof in regards to huge ticket sales.

Previously, Transformers: Age Of Extinction, the last movie, started previews on Thursday night three years ago minting $8.75M from late-night showings starting at 9 PM on 2,990 screens. Paramount went on to report that pic’s opening weekend at $100M. Internally, Paramount is comping Last Knight to Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which earned $5.5M on its preview night, then $23.6M on its first day before a $63M weekend (however, that was the three day over Memorial Day).

According to ComScore, Last Knight files behind the midnight preview cash generated by 2009’s Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen ($16M, before posting a $62M first day) and 2011’s Dark Of The Moon ($13.5M, $37.7M first day).

Outside of Last Knight‘s $5.5M start, it was a robust day for movies with Disney’s Cars 3 making an estimated $6.8M, up 24% from Monday, for a running cume of $66M, followed by Warner Bros/DC’s Wonder Woman which made $5.4M, up 13%, with a running cume in its third week of $285.35M. The Patty Jenkins-directed movie will cross $300M this weekend. Stateside the movie is easily the highest-grossing live-action movie directed by a woman at the domestic box office, beating both Betty Thomas’ CGI-hybrid Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel ($219.6M) and Twilight ($192.8m). Lionsgate’s All Eyez On Me grossed an estimated $1.97M, -6% from Monday, for a five-day take of $30.5M.