It may have received the worst reviews of any “Transformers” movie, but “Age of Extinction” was quite lively at the box office on Friday. The fourth installment in the Paramount Pictures and Hasbro franchise earned an impressive $41.6 million on Friday including $8.75 million from late shows on Thursday night. That means Michael Bay's latest opus is now on track for anywhere for a $95-100 million debut which would be the biggest three-day debut of 2014. The film could still falter, however. With just a 17% on Rotten Tomatoes and 31 on Metacritic “Age of Extinction” is also one of the most panned films of the year. Have audiences had enough? We'll find out after Saturday's grosses officially come in.
Holding at no. 2 was Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum's hit comedy “22 Jump Street.” The Sony Pictures release pulled in another $5 million for $129.4 million to date. It's slowed down a tad, but should surpass “21 Jump Street's” $139 million by early next week.
“How To Train Your Dragon 2” continued to rank third with another $4.1 million and $112.8 million to date. Disappointingly, “Dragon 2” is not holding as well as its predecessor, but is making more during the week than that word of mouth hit did. Unfortunately, matching the original's $217 million domestic is likely a pipe dream at this point. Internationally? That's where “Dragon 2” has a chance to reach some level of profitability.
Dropping all the way to no. 4 is last weekend's champ, “Think Like A Man Too.” The Kevin Hart comedy grossed another $3.4 million has earned $41.1 million in just 8 days. And, in a recurring theme this summer, this sequel will have a hard time earning the original 2012's $91.5 million. At this point, a final take of $65-75 million seems most likely.
Fifth place went to Disney's blockbuster fantasy “Maleficent” which took in $2.5 million for $196.2 million to date. Already Angelina Jolie's biggest movie ever, “Maleficent” should cross the $200 million mark on Sunday and become the fourth film to surpass that total along with “The Lego Movie,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”
Look for complete weekend estimates Sunday on HitFix.