TOKYO -- Opening on Saturday (Aug 4) on 600 screens, the Michael Bay-helmed "Transformers" jumped straight to the top of the Japanese weekend B.O. with a two-day total of Y631.3 million ($5.35 million.) That spelled more than "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ," which took in $4.04 million over the weekend.

The "Transformers" figure is 16% better than the $4.6 million opening weekend for "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" ( Japan cume: $57.5 million) and 6% better than the $5.07 million of "Mission Impossible III" (Japan cume $43.4 million), both of which bowed in the same summer period.

"Transformers" also compares favorably with Bay's previous smash "Armageddon," which opened in Japan with $5.87 million and went on to make $114 million in 1998. With the Japanese exhibition circuit considerably smaller than today, "Armageddon" had a lesser number of prints.

Looking at the strong early numbers, and the higher than expected female auds, distributor United International Pictures is predicting a $59 million final tally for "Transformers."

© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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