Box Office Review: Michael Bay back on (damn!) top

To those glorious fools who had hoped against hope that The Island might mark the beginning of the end for Michael Bay's filmmaking career, I am loathe to tell you that such wishes now appear to be in vain. Transformers left the North American box office in a twisted wreckage of smoking metal this week, taking in a (groan) record-setting 152.5 million dollars in its opening 7 days. With regard to Mr. Bay, it seems that The Island was but the end of the beginning. He is now free and able to issue forth Transformers sequels well into the next decade. It is a dark time for the Rebellion.

In happier news, the superb Ratatouille had a great second weekend and pulled in an additional 29 million bucks to raise its cume to 109.5 million. Expect a long stay in the top ten for Remy and Linguine. It received sustained applause at the show I saw over the weekend. Live Free or Die Hard earned a steady, if unspectacular 17.4 million and now stands at 84.1 million after two weeks in the theaters. It should end up being the highest grosser in the Die Hard series (not accounting for that pesky inflation, of course). In third place, almost by saturation marketing default, was the awful License to Wed which grabbed 10.4 million. As a huge John Krasinski and (yes) Mandy Moore fan, I hope both make better script choices in the future. At least Krasinski still has The Office. Maybe Mandy should return to Entourage which hasn't been the same since her Aquagirl arc ended.