《变形金刚4》内地首映票房破纪录 在美遭差评

电影《变形金刚4》27日在中国内地首映至16日凌晨票房累计已达18亿元，而且首日票房就破了两亿人民币，成为中国电影市场史上首日票房最高的影片。

影片同时在的两万多块屏幕上首映，排片率达到64%，不少影院所有的放映厅都在放映这部影片。变形金刚在中国拥有大批无条件支持的拥趸。

中国影院票房最成功的影片仍然是《阿凡达》，在2009-2010年收获2.16亿美元，排在第二位的是2012年上映的国产影片《人再囧途之泰囧》，票房达到2.1亿美元。

Though well prepared, China's movie market watchers are still stunned by the unprecedented opening of "Transformers: Age of Extinction", estimated to have grossed some 613 million yuan (US$98.7 million) during its first week.

According to Mtime.com, a Chinese film-rating website, "Transformers" broke the record of the highest ticket sales for a film screened in Chinese mainland on the first week, a record previously held by "Titanic 3D" (US$75.3 million) in 2012.

According to "Piaofangba," a weibo account on box office research, the new installment of the Transformer franchise has broken several records in China, including the biggest opening, compared with the previous 122 million yuan, set by "The Monkey King."

The Paramount tentpole also dethroned "Iron Man 3" with the largest midnight screening box office: 20 million yuan.

The "autobots" owe their success to the 20,000 plus movie screens, but also to favorable screening arrangements.

Some 63 percent of screens were set aside for "Transformers 4", also a record.

Despite its success in China, the film was not as well received in the US, earning only US$8.75 million on its opening day, well behind US$10.5 million of "Godzilla" and US$9.2 million of "The Amazing Spiderman 2".

As of June 28, the fourth installment has received 18% support on Rotten Tomatoes, just one percent higher than the score "Transformers 2" earned. In comparison, the original "Transformers" was rated 57% fresh.

As China and the United States are about to renegotiate imported movie quotas, movie authorities have been calling for theaters to give more support to domestic productions.

Zhang Hongsen, director of film bureau under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, said on Wednesday at the 17th Shanghai International Film Festival that he hoped movie theater chains would be more rational and give domestic movies a fair crack of the whip.

Zhang said he heard of some theaters trying to show "Transformers 4" on all of their screens

"Have faith in domestic movies! How can we repeat the mistake on 'Lost in Thailand' in 2012 when we thought it would only reach 200 million yuan and finally found it was a 1.2 billion yuan movie?" said Zhang.

"The Breakup Guru", a domestic movie screened a day earlier, grossed a total of 57 million yuan, a not bad achievement considering its number of screens.