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As we reported back on the 8th July, a man was arrested in New York trying to film the Transformers movie in a cinema, well we now have more on this story as well as other arrests.

The arrest in New York was the first time someone was arrested and charged under the new anti-theater camming laws. This story was, later, picked up by the BBC News. What wasn't reported then however, was that this was only one of five arrests over that weekend. Four other also caught trying to filmTransformers.

On July 4th in El Centro California, an individual was caught using his/her Nokia camera/video phone. The alleged bootlegger was arrested and faces up to “one year in jail and up to $2,500 in fines.” under Californian law.

On the same day a 27 year old woman was arrested in Addison Illinois for using her mobile to film Transformers. Trespassing charges were also raised against her and they (the trespass violation) carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and up to $500 in fines, followed by a probationary period of up to one year.

During the long holiday weekend, another individual in Orlando, Florida managed to film 30 minutes of Transformers before police placed the suspect into custody. They now face up to one year in jail and fines of up to $1000.

Finally 31-year-old Tyrone F. Simpson of Grayson, Lawrenceville, Georgia was arrested on Saturday 7th July by an off-duty Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Deputy moonlighting as the AMC theater’s security guard after an audience member reported he was using a handheld camera to record the movie. MrSimpson was arrested for film piracy, which carries up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000 (though some sources report it as a year in jail and/or fines of upto $1000), as well as with possession of less than an ounce of marijuana (a first time offender carrying less than one ounce of marijuana in Georgia carries no fine and no jail sentence – only probation). Simpson was released from jail on bond Sunday.

"Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions is launching a new campaign to promote the cinema release of Transformers: The Movie." report mad.co.uk. The campaign will run into six-figures and will run across the Microsoft digital network including a new format on the MSN homepage, Window Live Messenger Video Agent and interactive game activity on the PC and X-box 360. MSN users will be able to view the trailer as well as customise their homepage wit ha choice of four different Transformers backgrounds based on the Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Blackout and Barricade.

Here are some quotes from the aricle:

Below you will find the full press release from Paramount Pictures UK regarding the Transformers movie success. I believe this is the same as the US one other than the note at the bottom


More Than Meets The Eye: Blockbuster Transforms Record Books

TRANSFORMERS saw a record-destroying launch in North America at the weekend that was complemented by a stunning second international weekend.

The domestic records started to fall as it launched on Tuesday (July 3) to become the biggest Tuesday on record ($27.5m). The action blockbuster then stormed into the traditionally tough July 4 holiday rising day-on-day to take $29.1m - setting the all-time record for the holiday ahead of SPIDER-MAN 2's $21.9m.

The three-day (July 6-8) weekend saw the behemoth add $70.9m. This brings the colossal six-day total (including Monday July 2 previews) to $155.8m - cracking yet another record to become the biggest first week for a non-sequel in history. The result beat 2002's SPIDER-MAN which recorded $151.6m in its launch week.

The second international weekend for TRANSFORMERS saw it breaking more records for director Michael Bay and Paramount. A $46.7m weekend welcomed 19 new European territory launches while enjoying excellent holds in the Asia Pacific markets that opened it June 28.

A phenomenal second weekend in Korea headed the film's weekend business dropping off a mere 10% week-on-week for a $11.8m weekend and a $29.3m total gross in ther territory after 11 days. The film dominated the Korean market with a 74% market share at the weekend and has already sold over four million tickets, the second fastest film in history to achieve the landmark.

Russia's $7.1m launch set an all-time record for Michael Bay and was Paramount's second biggest opening of all time, to head the weekend for new launch territories. Spain followed with a $4.6m weekend.

TRANSFORMERS is already fast approaching the $100m mark in international box office, currently standing on $96.7m. Worldwide the film has already surpassed the $250m mark, with a total gross of $252.5m.

This marks a phenomenal start to TRANSFORMERS' worldwide release with many numerous international territories yet to open, including many major markets. Amongst those still to come are: Mexico, Brazil and South Africa (July 20); France and Belgium (July 25); the United Kingdom (July 27); Germany (August 2); and Japan (August 4).

TRANSFORMERS stars Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight and John Turturro, alongside the voice talents of Peter Cullen, Hugo Weaving and Keith David.

TRANFORMERS will open across the UK and Ireland on Friday, July 27^th.

Distributed by Paramount Pictures UK.

We received the following press release from Activision regarding their first quarter sales. Including in the eight million units that were shipped, 1 million units of Transformers: The Game. Here's the full release:


Activision Ships More Than Eight Million Units Worldwide During First Quarter Fiscal Year 2008


SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jul 10, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATVI) announced today that during the first quarter of fiscal year 2008, the company shipped more than four million units of Spider-Man 3(TM), two million units of Shrek the Third(TM), approximately one million units of TRANSFORMERS: The Game and more than one million units of Guitar Hero II(TM).

As a result, the company now expects that its financial results for the first quarter fiscal year 2008 will exceed its previously reported outlook on May 31, 2007.

"We are pleased with the strong worldwide consumer response to our three movie-based games - Spider-Man 3, Shrek The Third and TRANSFORMERS: The Game - as well as the launch of Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360(TM)," stated Robert Kotick, Chairman and CEO, Activision, Inc.

Activision expects to announce its first quarter fiscal 2008 earnings results in early August.

Separately, Activision confirmed that the company w ill webcast remarks made by its senior management during a corporate presentation to analysts at the E3 Media & Business Summit on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 12:30 pm PDT (3:30 pm EDT). To access the webcast, please log on to www.activision.com or http://phx.corporate-ir.net/playerlink.zhtml?c=60455&s=wm&e=1588763

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Founded in 1979, Activision posted net revenues of $1.5 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007.

Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and South Korea. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's World Wide Web site, which is located at www.activision.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Activision's expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. In this release they are identified by references to dates after the date of this release and words such as "will," "will be," "remains," "to be," "plans," "believes", "may", "expects," "intends," and similar expressions. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the further implementation, acceptance and effectiveness of the remedial measures recommended or adopted by the special sub-committee of independent directors established in July 2006 to review Activision's historical stock option granting practices, the board and Activision; the outcome of the SEC's formal investigation and the derivative litigation filed in Ju ly 2006 against certain current and former directors and officers of Activision relating to Activision's stock option granting practices, and the possibility that additional claims and proceedings will be commenced, including additional stockholder litigation, employee litigation, and additional action by the SEC and/or other regulatory agencies. Other factors that could cause Activision's actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, without limitation, other litigation (unrelated to stock option granting practices), sales of Activision's titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, Activision's ability to predict consumer preferences among competing hardware platforms (including next-generation hardware), declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Activision's pro ducts, adoption rate and availability of new hardware and related software, industry competition, rapid changes in technology and industry standards, protection of proprietary rights, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, vendors and third-party developers, international economic and political conditions, integration of recently acquired subsidiaries and identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities, limitations on our ability to issue stock and options, foreign exchange rate changes, and the risks identified in Activision's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and recent reports on Form 8-K.

The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision as of the date of this release, and Activision assumes no obligations to update any such forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations.

SOURCE: Activision, Inc.

Paramount Pictures UK have now issued their press release on the success of the Transformers Movie (following on from Paramount US release). Below you will find the original snippet with the full release soon to follow. The action blockbuster stormed into the traditionally tough July 4 holiday rising day-on-day to take $29.1m - setting the all-time record for the holiday ahead of SPIDER-MAN 2's $21.9m.

The three-day (July 6-8) weekend saw the behemoth add $70.9m. This brings the colossal six-day total (including Monday July 2 previews) to $155.8m - cracking yet another record to become the biggest first week for a non-sequel in history. The result beat 2002's SPIDER-MAN which recorded $151.6m in its launch week.

TRANSFORMERS is already fast approaching the $100m mark in international box office, currently standing on $96.7m. Worldwide the film has already surpassed the $250m mark, with a total gross of $252.5m.

BoxOfficeMojo now have stats for the Transformers Movie worldwide upto the 8th July and the current gross takings is $249,192,993, just under 100 million more than the films cost. So its quiet possible that when today's takings are counted, Transformers would have passed the $275 million dollars mark in its first week.

Deadline Hollywood Daily report that according to Paramount Pictures (US) the Transformers movie took $22.7 million on Friday, $25.9 million on Saturday and have a projected $18.9 million for Sunday in the United States alone (4,011 cinemas). Transformers has now had the highest grossing 7-day opening of any non-sequel film in the US, passing Spider-man ($151.6m), The Passion Of The Christ ($144.6m) and Harry Potter ($129.4 million). On top of this record breaking US showing, Transformers has now (up to the end of Saturday) grossed $93.6 million in the 23 other countries in which it had been released. The film is yet to open in several countries (have a look at our Upcoming Events page for the complete list) including the United Kingdom (traditionally the second largest grossing nation) and Japan. Paramount estimate the total global box office takings to reach $246.1 million by the end of Sunday.

Whilst we all know that the Transformers movie is doing extremely well in the US, less has been reported on how the film has faired during its International releases thus far. Although mainly positive, Transformers had a poor debut in Europe. Here's more on this story.

• Transformers opened in Europe in Italy with a disappointing $3.6 million in 540 screens.
• Transformers was the fourth highest debut ever in South Korea with $13.3 million 697 screens
• In Singapore, it scored the largest four-day start of all time with $1.8 million from 29 screens
• In Thailand, Transformers logged the biggest opening day for a non-sequel during a $1.9 million weekend from 78 screens.
• In the Philippines, it received the eighth highest launch ever with $2.2 million from 270 screens.
• In Indonesia is reach $778,250 from 87 screens.
• Malaysia saw the film take $1.5 million from 60 screens.
• Taiwan took in $3.1 million from 68 screens.
• Finally, Transformers was the top-ranked film in Australia with $6.8 million from 239 screens, beating War of the Worlds by 16 percent.

Although the UK release is not until the 27th July, if the UK performance of Shrek is anything to go by then things look good. Shrek 3, the number one film in the UK right now, had the highest-grossing opening ever, in U.S. Currency, with $33.5 million from 536 cinemas. The Transformers movie is due to open with over 830 reels (we're not sure on the exact number of cinemas that this converts to though) in the UK on its debut.

On a side note, the cinema in Providence Rhode Island, cost under �5 to see a film, where as our local Vue cinema is over �7 (over �10 in central London) which is have a knock-on effect in terms of revenue.

BoxOfficeMojo has been updated with estimated figures for Friday sales of tickets to Transformers in the US. According to their site, the current estimate stands at $22.5 million dollars, taking the total revenue to $143,656,961 dollars for international sales up to the 1st July and US domestic sales between the 3nd July and the 6th July. This means that when you allow for the missing international days as well as yesterdays box office revenue, the total gross figure probably stands at just under the 200 million dollar mark, a profit of 50 million.

In terms of UK releases, the main Paramount Pictures campaign has now begun, as we reported several months ago the TV spots started to air from last weekend, with the main cinema trailer campaigns now beginning as well as an increase of "street advertisement" due to start in the next two weeks. Paramount Pictures will start to push the movie more heavily within the UK once films such as Die Hard and Harry Potter have both opened.

We've update Transformers Movie Advertisement image gallery, with a picture showing the Thai version of the Protect, Destroy advertising stand. You can view the image here.

Don't forget to check out our Transformers Live Action Movie area

A moviegover was caught on Friday in New York city trying to secretly record the Transformers movie. The arrest was made under the new New York City law which stiffens penalties for pirating films (increased from a $250 fine to a $5,000 fine and upto 6 months in jail). According to the MMPAA, 40% of bootlegged films recorded in New York city.

Credit to the Miami Herald for the story

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) have called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to expand their investigation of the marketing of violent entertainment to children to include PG-13 movies. This responses comes over they (the CCFC) have cited "the widespread and irresponsible marketing of the PG-13 Transformers movie to preschoolers".

You can find a full press release below

Transformers Marketing: More than Meets the Eye

Hasbro, DreamWorks Target Preschoolers with Violent PG-13 Movie;

CCFC calls for FTC Probe

Citing the widespread and irresponsible marketing of the PG-13 Transformers movie to preschoolers, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to expand their investigation of the marketing of violent entertainment to children to include PG-13 movies. The film, which opens on July 4, 2007, was rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language” by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). A review by CCFC found more than one hundred Transformers’ toys for children under six; Transformer promotions by Kraft and Burger King clearly aimed at young children; and advertisements for the movie on children’s television programming rated appropriate for kids as young as two.

“It is extremely disappointing that Hasbro and DreamWorks would choose to promote a film to preschool children that the industry deems inappropriate for anyone under the age of thirteen,” said CCFC’s Dr. Susan Linn, author of Consuming Kids. “In their cynical attempt to wring every last dollar from one of this summer’s blockbusters, these companies have shown little regard for children’s well-being or parents’ desires to limit their children’s exposure to violent entertainment.”

Every single one of the one hundred and twenty-nine Hasbro Transformers toys reviewed by CCFC came with a recommended age younger than thirteen. Seventy-two of these products (56%) are recommended for children as young as five; an additional thirty-two toys (25%) are recommended for children as young as four; thirteen toys (10%) are recommended for children as young as three. A toy promotion at Burger King is also for children three and up.

“The sheer volume of toys aimed at preschoolers is likely to deceive parents into believing that the film is appropriate for young children,” said Dr. Linn. “Since every Transformers toy is an ad for a PG-13 movie, the toys should carry a similar rating.”

CCFC also found advertising for the Transformer movie, toys, and Burger King promotion during children’s programming on the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Over the past thirteen months, the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) – the advertising industry’s self-appointed watchdog – has found advertising for five different PG-13 films during children’s television programming, but no disciplinary action was announced. Because CARU is unwilling or unable to stop the marketing of violent PG-13 movies to young children, CCFC is calling on the FTC to intervene.

“As long as there are millions of dollars to be made by advertising PG-13 movies to young children, the film industry will continue to ignore CARU’s recommendations,” said CCFC’s Dr. Allen Kanner. “This is just the latest indication that decades of self-regulation has failed. If we really want media companies to stop marketing violent entertainment to children, we need a regulatory body that has the authority to actually enforce its own regulations.”

Since 2000, the FTC has issued regular reports on the marketing of violent entertainment to children. Those reports, however, only examine the marketing plans of R-rated movies. In a letter sent today to FTC Chairperson Deborah Platt Majoras, CCFC urged the Commission to:

• Expand its investigation of marketing violent entertainment to include the targeting of PG-13 movies to younger children.
  
  

• Launch an investigation of the blatant and irresponsible marketing of Transformers to preschool children through toys, food promotions and television advertising.
  
  

• Work with the media and toy industries to establish a consistent set of ratings for toys and the media they are based on and to establish clear, enforceable guidelines for the marketing of PG-13 movies.
  
  

The complete text of CCFC’s letter can be found at:

http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/pressreleases/transformersftcletter.pdf.

Susan King has published an article today in the Chicago Tribue entitled "Creating 'Transformer' robots required work of mega proportions". The article talks about the work that over 300 people at ILM have done on the Transformers movie over the last 18 months. You can read the article in full here.

Speculation has started that the Transformers Movie may well have broken even (it had running costs of $150 million dollars), and reports from BoxOfficeMOjo are reporting $121 million dollar takings in the US and overseas. The Transformers Movie hasn't been released yet in many territories, but the good takings could mean a worldwide release for the second Transformers Movie .. that is if there is a second.

Thanks to TFWorld2005 for the original spot.

Following on from the recent reports regarding the success of the Transformers movie in the US, we are proud to be able to bring you some more detailed information on the gross figures as well some news from the international releases from last months.

Transformers had an outstanding international start last weekend which we followed by a record-breaking US box office opening. The film official opened on July 3rd and grossed an colossal $29.082 million, over 30% more than the domestic (US) launch of War of the Worlds and last summers Superman Returns! When combined with Monday nights previews, Transformers had grossed $36.25m million dollars by the the start of Wednesday (more than previously reported). The US success comes hot on the heels of stunning international launches, which set a wealth of records for Paramount Picture,s Dreamsworks, director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg. Transformers will open nationalwide in the UK (in over 800 cinemas) on Friday the 27th July, with preview screenings on Saturday the 21st (see your local cinema for details).

Thanks to Paramount UK for sending us through the information and figures.

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