TRANSFORMERS: Revenge of the Fallen has taken over $200 million in its first five days of US release, narrowly missing out on re-taking the five-day opening record set last year by Batman sequel The Dark Knight.

Michael Bay’s sequel has earned an estimated $201.2 million since opening in the States on Wednesday (June 24, 2009), in spite of generally bad reviews.

The film reunites young stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox in a follow-up that finds more bad robots (aka The Decepticons) wreaking havoc on the world in an attempt to gain revenge on the good Autobots.

If the film continues to pull in big figures over the coming weeks, it could well become the biggest hit of the year so far at the North American box office.

The opening figures also mean that Revenge of the Fallen, which reportedly cost an estimated $200 million to make, surpassed industry expectations. Earlier in the week, Paramount had forecast a five-day haul in the region of $130 million to $150 million.

The biggest movie of the year so far remains Star Trek, which has grossed $246 million in seven weeks of release in America and Canada – but Transformers now looks certain to surpass that, thereby completing a magnificent summer for Paramount.

The failure to surpass Batman’s record-breaking five-day haul isn’t a travesty… given that industry forecasts didn’t anticipate anywhere near the $200 million mark, the fact that Transformers almost eclipsed The Dark Knight‘s $203.8 million is pretty amazing stuff.

It remains to be seen whether director Bay will return for a third film, however, given the criticisms he levelled at Paramount chiefs over their marketing of the film in the US [leaked via email], as well as his reported disillusionment over the way he is regularly treated by critics.

Read our review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen or our interview with Michael Bay

Next story: Christian Bale unsure on Batman and Terminator sequels

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