So Transformers Dark of the Moon has done pretty well, though not passing Revenge of the Fallen in the US on the opening week, it's done OK.  Here's a few stats for you (thanks to BoxOfficeMojo)

Domestic (US) Alltime Rankings

11 - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen -  $402,111,870
24 - Transformers - $319,246,193
140 - Transformers: Dark of the Moon - $180,651,397

So that's $902,009,560.00 so far taken in the US for the Live Action Transformers franchise

WorldWide

25 - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - $836,600,000 (rounded)
43 - Transformes - $709,700.00 (rounded)
xx - Transformers: Dark of the Moon - $418,011,064

So that's $1,764,311,064 in total.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers Dark of the Moon had a budget of $190 million dollars, and has taken $180 million, so it has another 10 million to go to break even domestically.

"What happens next? Certainly not a reboot. We haven't lost the Transformers. They didn't grow up or become expensive like Toby Maguire. I don't know what happens next. I'm pretty sure there will be a second trilogy. I am pretty sure it will kick ass. And I am pretty sure some of you will hate it because it wasn't all bots."

That is what Don Murphy had to say when asked "what happens now with the Transformers franchise.  You can read the post here, but you have to log in.

Our thanks go to Lucy from NTF-Archive.de for sending in the following story:

"On the last visit at Burger King in germany we saw the new DotM figures and bought them all to make much new images.

We find also a small quiz letter, here are the images:

Source: NTF-Archive.de & Burger King Germany"

BoxOfficeMojo have published an article in which they report that Transformers: Dark of the Moon too $97.5 million over the weekend ­within the US on roughly 9,300 screens, taking the opening 4-day weekend gross to $116.4 million.  This figure means that the 3rd live action Transformers film has passed the total of $88.2 million that Spider-man 2 gross as well as passing the latest Pirate of the Carribean as the top-grossing weekend of 2011.

As of their latest update the film had grossed $399,125,000 with 218 million from non-US sales and $181 from domestic gross.  The film has now taken twice as much as it cost putting it at profit of over $190 million.

We have updated theTransformers toys instruction sheets section of the website with some new PDF instructon sheets entries.

Of the updates, the following new entries were added into the database:

1. KRE-O TRANSFORMERS OPTIMUS PRIME Construction Set 31143 Instructions

You can download copies of the instruction sheets from our Transformers toys instruction sheets section of the website.

According to ­­TFW2005.com message board member Airfox, the release of the third live action Transformers movie, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, has been suspended until further notice.  Airfox points out that, until very recently, promotion for the release of the film was ticking along nicely, however that all stopped a couple of days ago when the film was removed from cinema listings.  He has roughly translated an article from local Venezuela newspaper Ultimas Noticias­ which states­ "During the last 2 days, ads related to the premiere of Transformers 3 have been dropped from the web pages of Cines Unidos and Cinex. Cinex's spokepersons on Twitter posted a comment stating that the movie has been "Suspended until further notice."

However, this announcement hasn't met the fans demands for information. Does anyone know the real reason why the movie's premiere was "suspended/canceled"? Fans are clamoring for answers.

There have been many rumors regarding the suspension, some think - and this is the hypothesis with the most mentions - that the movie has a plot that includes our country. "

As those of you who have seen the film know, there is no direct relationship between the plot or any character to Venezuela, so it will be interesting to see if the film becomes banned and is never released, or whether it just slips back.

We won't give anything away, as that would be unfair for 99.9% of you that haven't see Transformers Dark of the Moon yet, as it's not released for another day, but what we will say is that you must go and see it.

The reaction to the film, by fans in attendance, and by general film distributors was good.  A much better reaction then to Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, and Michael Bay will appreciate one "focus moment" (those who went to the BotCon Hall of Fame would have seen this) with Bumblebee and Spike resulted in a rapturous round of applause.

Dave's Opinion

I'll summarise, better than the second Transformers Movie, and the most story driven, this film feels more like the first (just without the spine tingling sensation of seeing Prime transform for the first time).  The movie is slow .. very very slow .. to the point I worried that I was going to leave thinking ... That was a Transformers movie I never want to have to sit through again ... but things to improve.  If you can last the 90 minutes of slowness, you have an hour or so of action (though even that was dragged out for the start in my opinion), some of which makes up for the previous slowness.  There is nothing that will make your jaw drop in this film in terms of technical achievements, but it is the most rounded of the three Transformers Movies, and I did come out having enjoyed it and having a buzz.

Humans die (which is a good touch), robots die (some in glorious detail, others in not so glorious detail).  Leonard Nimoy as Sentinel Prime was a great casting choice.

The generic Decepticons are still too similar, but there is an awesome moment with Sideswipe, Ironhide and three Decepticons.  A great battle and nice to see different robots from similar vehicles.

The new Transformers characters aren't featured that much, other than Sentinel Prime.  Laserbeak and Soundwave have key roles, the others were just there.  I also can't remember Ratchet speaking in the movie.

Friends have given Transformers Dark of the Moon 8/10 .. which is probably a fair rating.  As slow paced as it is, with lots of scenes that didn't need to be there (and big jumps in time .. for reasons we can only think of as budgetary), it could have been better, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

A fitting end to the Michael Bay Transformers Live Action Movie Trilogy.

Oh .. best 3D since Avatar ... personally I didn't really notice any.  If you get the choice see it in 2D to save you money, the 3D isn't worth the extra £4 to £6 that cinema's charge.

Oh, Shockwave is not the drill creature, that is his pet.  Megatron as a hobo is as a fantastic look.

Steve's thoughts

I didn't think the films pace was as slow as the people I saw with it.  Like all the films it ended better than it began but all in all I preferred it massively over Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  The voice cast was pretty much as has been rumoured / released and personally I thought that Frank Welkers' Soundwave was an improvement on the last film, though it could just be after having no voice in Transformers Prime I was glad to hear him talk.  Frank did a good job with Shockwave though I he needed more screen time and lines IMO.  Nimoy was a stand-out again, and had much more character in his performance than most of the other Transformers.  Dino is Dino, Q is Q, there are no twins.  The new characters once again lack screen time which is a shame, but this time around ILM do not re-use as many renders as ROTF which is a good thing.  Rosie's acting was not as painful as I expected, but it wasn't good.  Unlike my brother I thought the 3D was good, very good in fact.  It was subtle enough most of the time that it was not in your face, but you could actually look around the screen and things kept in focus unlike many 3D films.  Personally I am looking forward to watching it at the iMax as I do believe that some of the set-pieces will look amazing in that format.  The film is far from without flaws, time jumps around a couple of times and the celebrations at the end seemed premature to me as I was left with a "well hold on, what about ...." thought in my head as much like the previous films the "clean up" was brushed over.

There is Bay humour in this film, though no where near as much as the 2nd, which is a good thing IMO, though there are still some face-palm moments where things are painful rather than funny.  I suppose overall the film was what I was expecting from the third movie after coming out of the 2nd.  Visually the film looks and sounds stunning, I would suggest seeing it in 3D if you can see it at the iMax OR have a decent theatre near you.  If you have a cheap cinema as we do where the quality of the projectors and screens are low, don't bother, and consider going somewhere else.

If the first film was 8/10 (mainly because of the feeling you got from it), then the 2nd film was a 5/10 with this being a 7/10 for me.

Oh if you plan on staying through the credits, there is one scene with Simmon's early on and then that is it.  The only thing to note towards the end of the credits is the notice about Paramount not receiving money for promotion of tobacco.

We have now closed the competition to win two tickets to the FDA screening of Transformers: Dark of the Moon in Leicester Square on Monday 27th June 2011 and can announce who the winner is, well sort of, I  didn't ask you all to enter a name so I can only announce the beginning of winners email address.

So with no further ado, our congratulations go to "thekop84@******". If you check your Inbox you will have received an email from us with more details which you need to read and come back to us.

We'd like to thank everyone who entered the contest and you can be sure that, should Transformers 4 get the green light, we will try our best to get more tickets to early screenings to give away.

We have updated the Transformers Movie section of the website to include four new Dark of the Moon image galleries.  The galleries contain photographs taken by Getty Images during the Moscow and Berlin premiers of Transformers Dark of the Moon.  The image galleries are:

Transformers Dark of the Moon - Berlin Premier Press Conference (27 images)

Transformers Dark of the Moon - Moscow Red Carpet(15 images)

Transformers Dark of the Moon - Linkin Park performance in Moscow (60 images)

Transformers Dark of the Moon - Moscow Press Conference and Photo Shoot (37 images)

We are pleased to once again be able to run a competition for one lucky visitor to our website to win a pair of tickets to the exclusive FDA screening of Transformers: Dark of the Moon at the Odeon in Leices­ter Square, London, England on Monday the 27th June 2011. The screening takes place at 6:30pm with the doors opening at 5:45pm.

To enter the competition all you need to do is to click the +1 (plus one) button at the end of this news article and then enter your email address when prompted. You must have a Google account to enter as we are using the Google Plus one system to help us collate the entries and stop duplication. The winner, who will be picked at random, will be announced on Sunday evening and will need to collect the pair of tickets directly from us on the day. Unfortunately the tickets only arrived today so we have been unable to run this competition earlier.

Good look everyone.

An auction happeared on ebay for a Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Prop

The  auction is for a ­TRANSFORMERS 2: ROTF STEEL FLAME THROWER GRENADE GUN­

Features:

1.     Movie: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
2.     Item: Steel Flame Thrower Grenade Launcher Gun
3.     Used by the Military in Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers The Movie
4.     Barrel Opens and Locks to Hold Grenade Launcher Shell (Resin Grenade Shells Available)
5.     Gun is made of Steel
6.     Hinged Prop Stand
7.     Non Functional LCD Display
8.     Length: 36"
9.     Includes Certificate of Authenticity from Hollywood PARTS
10.     Own a Piece of Cinema History!!!

­We've received a few reports that Burger King Transformers: Dark of the Moon promotion appears to have finally started in Burger Kings. Previously many stores either just had the poster in the window or didn't even have that.  You can view an image of the poster thanks to a Tweet to us by Neurie.

If you are looking forward to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but do not want to wait until the end of the month to see the film, then stay with us as we will have some news to excite you later in the evening.