‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ Narrowly Takes Top Spot in Domestic Box Office Debut

Neither franchise fatigue nor superhero fatigue could be witnessed at the domestic box office this weekend, with the top two movies — Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — both delivering a combined total of more than $100 million. With an estimated opening weekend haul of $60.5 million, the seventh installment in Paramount’s action series won a closely contested race for the top spot, edging out holdover hit Across the Spider-Verse, which is estimated to have made $55 million in its second weekend.

Rise of the Beasts’ $60 million debut falls short of the high benchmarks that the Transformers franchise had set during the Michael Bay years, which lasted from 2007 to 2017, but it comes on the higher end of projections heading into the weekend. The final film of Bay’s stint — Transformers: The Last Knight — debuted with a disappointing $44 million, before concluding its global run with $603 million. But the franchise hit new lows with 2018’s Bumblebee, which managed only $21 million in its opening weekend, despite earning universal acclaim. By comparison, the first Transformers movie debuted with $70 million, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen debuted with $200 million in its extended five-day opening, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon made $162 million in its five-day opening.

Two films in the franchise — Dark of the Moon and Transformers: Age of Extinction — have passed the coveted $1 billion mark at the global box office. But it’s too early to tell if Rise of the Beasts will have the legs to last it over the summer. The movie opened to mixed reviews, with Collider’s Ross Bonaime writing that it “makes some solid strides towards the franchise’s future, but also takes a few steps back.” Opening day audiences, however, awarded it an excellent A- CinemaScore, which bodes well for its future.

RELATED: ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ Proves Well-Written Humans Are More Important Than Autobots

Not a Single Movie in the Top Five is Based on Original IP

Across the Spider-Verse fell by a respectable 54% in its second weekend — Marvel superhero titles tend to drop by over 60%, with the recent exception being Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which fell by only 48% in its sophomore weekend. After 10 days in theaters, Across the Spider-Verse has grossed $226 million domestically, and has already overtaken Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’s lifetime domestic haul of $190 million. Globally, the movie passed $300 million this weekend and should overtake the first film’s $385 million lifetime haul in the coming week. Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid took the third spot with an estimated third weekend of $22 million, which pushes its running domestic total to $228 million. While the movie is swimming along at the stateside box office, it’s now clear as water that it has underperformed overseas. All said and done, The Little Mermaid will struggle to pass the $500 million mark globally, and this will put it far behind the biggest live-action remakes that Disney has released over the last decade, four of which have made more than $1 billion worldwide.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 took the fourth spot with $6.9 million in its sixth weekend, pushing its running domestic total to $335 million, which means that it has now overtaken the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie both domestically and internationally. In fifth place, The Boogeyman made an estimated $6.7 million in its second weekend, taking its running domestic total to just under $25 million. You can watch our interview with Rise of the Beasts director Steven Caple Jr. here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.