Box Office: 'Transformers 3' reaches $181M!

It sure was a massive holiday weekend at the North American box office, with Michael Bay's "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" exploding on the big screen to reach an estimated total domestic gross of $181.1 million after only six days in release.

As it happens, the third film in the series helped  turn this Fourth of July holiday weekend at the movies into the biggest yet. "Dark of the Moon" scored $32.8 million Friday, $34.4 million Saturday, $30.2 million Sunday, and $18.9 million Monday.

Not bad for the 3D spectacle that received slightly better reviews than its predecessor "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which actually made more moola than "Moon" during its first six days ($214.9 million). Still, for Paramount, this sure is a big win.

By the way, Deadline also points out "Dark of the Moon" pulled in an estimated $235 million overseas so far. In other box office news, "Cars 2" has a pretty good weekend as well, earning $32 million for a total of $123 million." "Bad Teacher" followed with $17.6 million.

Not doing so hot this weekend was Tom Hanks' new film "Larry Crowne," which only bagged $15.7 million. It's not exactly a great performance by a well-marketed comedy that features both Hanks and Julia Roberts. Have these two run out of juice?

At No. 5, "Super 8" generated $9.5 million, lifting its total to $110 million. Following in sixth place was new entry "Monte Carlo," which grossed $8.7 million. "Green Lantern" took a big dive to No. 7 with a weekend gross of $7.9 million ($103.6 million).

Source: Box Office Mojo (www.boxofficemojo.com)