"Transformers" Early Boxoffice

The monolith that is TRANSFORMERS:  DARK OF THE MOON has started its weekend.  With a combination of 9PM shows (that were supposedly all in 3D) and midnights, reports are that the picture made $13.5M last night.  This is considerably less than the $16M for midnight Transformers 2 shows, although more than the original Transformers ($8.8M for evening and midnight).  Paramount is sending out the word that they expect Transformers 3 to do a 6 1/2 day number between its predecessors, which means so far they're on track; considering that their competition is weak over the holiday (the mediocre Cars 2 and the counterprogramming Bad Teacher, Larry Crowne and Monte Carlo), there's little to stand in its way.  (Although no studio likes to see a sequel make less than its forebears, that's the way franchise movies have been playing out this summer... in the US.  No doubt Paramount expects a huge pile of 3D gold to be coming their way overseas.)