《變形金剛》登頂北美與中國票房

As expected, “Transformers: Age of Extinction” was a huge No. 1 at North American theaters over the weekend, taking in an estimated $100 million and prompting Rockette kicks from Paramount Pictures. The movie industry’s broader reaction was more muted pending a final box-office tally; Sunday estimates have a way of declining a bit on Monday, when actual grosses are reported and headline writers have moved on.

不出所料，《變形金剛：絕跡重生》(Transformers: Age of Extinction)週末在北美影院雄踞票房首位，約爲一億美元，令派拉蒙影業極爲興奮。在等待最終票房統計期間，電影業界的普遍反應則要緩和一些；週日，人們預計票房在週一會有所下跌，屆時會得出真正的票房總收入，頭條寫手們的注意力也會轉移。

But even if the North American opening for “Age of Extinction” ultimately dips below the magic $100 million mark, this robot extravaganza from Michael Bay will still have achieved something momentous: For the first time, a Hollywood movie delivered roughly the same big total in China as it did in North America. “Age of Extinction,” which cost Paramount at least $325 million to make and market, sold $90 million in tickets in China over its first three days, by far the best result on record for any Hollywood film in that fast-growing market. (To compare, the last “Transformers” movie, released in 2011, opened to less than half of that amount there.) Imax theaters in particular turned out crowds; the large-format exhibition company said that ticket sales in China for “Age of Extinction” beat those for “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” its previous record holder, by more than two to one.

但就算《絕跡重生》在北美首映的票房低於有魔力的一億美元大關，邁克爾·貝(Michael Bay)帶來的這部機器人大片仍然取得了某些重大成就：它是第一部在中國的票房總收入與在北美差不多的好萊塢電影。派拉蒙在《絕跡重生》上至少花費了3.25億美元的製作和市場推廣費用，在中國的票房三天內達到9000萬美元（約6億人民幣），在這個飛速增長的市場裏創下了好萊塢電影迄今爲止的最高票房紀錄（作爲對比，2011年發行的上一部《變形金剛》系列電影剛開始上映時票房還不到這個數字的一半）。Imax這種大屏幕放映的影院特別吸引觀衆；Imax公司說，《絕跡重生》在中國的票房銷售超過了上個紀錄保持者《霍比特人：史矛革之戰》(The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug)，是後者的兩倍還多。

“This is a huge turning point for the Hollywood-China dynamic,” said Phil Contrino, chief analyst of . “It levels the playing field between the two markets.” “Age of Extinction,” which took in an additional $111.3 million from other foreign markets, received disastrous reviews from critics, many of whom complained of an overlong running time of 166 minutes. But ticket buyers gave it an A-minus grade in CinemaScore exit polls, boding well for word of mouth. No other film opened in wide release against the movie, the fourth installment of a franchise that has now taken in more than $3 billion globally.

“這是好萊塢-中國時代的一個巨大轉折點，”的首席分析師菲爾·康特里諾(Phil Contrino)說，“它令兩個市場公平競爭。”《絕跡重生》在其他國外市場也獲得了1.113億美元的票房收入，評論家對它惡評無數，許多人都抱怨166分鐘時間太漫長了。但買票看電影的人在CinemaScore的觀後投票中爲它打出了A-的分數，預示着該片會有良好的口碑。這個系列大片的第四部在首映期間就獲得如此廣泛的發行，這是前所未有的。這個系列在全球的票房已經達到30億美元。