While all the movie studios are struggling to deal with falling DVD sales, one studio is smiling.  Paramount Home Video sold 7.5 million DVD/Blu-ray copies of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” in its first week of release including 1.2 million Blu-ray’s, making it the year’s highest selling HD title. To put that in perspective, “Twilight” was the year’s biggest selling title and has sold 8 million copies since March 21st.  So if you were wondering why Michael Bay jumped right into making “Transformers 3″, it’s because the movies make a lot of money.  Sorry to dispel the notion that Bay does it because he deeply believes in the “Transformers” mythology and the soul-searching questions it raises.

Of course, the big question is whether or not Bay will listen to outside voices on TF3, because from what I heard, he was left completely alone when making the sequel.  While I didn’t hate the movie like some people, I was definitely let down.  But I can’t think of another filmmaker I’d want to see making “Giant Fucking Robots That Punch Each Other 3″*.  So Michael, if you’re reading this, your visuals are awesome but please get a good script and try to listen when people give you helpful advice.

*Not the official title.

With Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” now out on DVD and Blu-ray, we’ve been given 10 copies to giveaway. So if you’d like to enter to win a copy, hit the jump to see what you need to do:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen earned over $820 million at the box office and become the #1 movie of the year in North America and throughout the world. Star Trek is the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2009 and has become the highest-grossing film in the series.

The writers responsible for both of those films, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman talked about their DVD releases, during a recent press day at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica. The two compared their processes for each of the films, along with their approach to making existing material interesting and new for audiences. They also talked about their history with “Star Trek” and covered a lot of subjects the fans will find interesting. Here’s what they had to say:

Today, we have an exclusive clip for a special feature from the upcoming Blu-ray/DVD for “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” .  The feature focuses on the filming of the action scene so I don’t understand how this feature doesn’t have a disc unto itself.  Either way, if you’re a fan of TF2, you’ll definitely want to hit the jump and check this out.  The DVD and Blu-ray for “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” hits shelves on October 20th.

With the sci-fi action movie “Battle: Los Angeles” set to start filming this week in New Orleans, director Jonathan Liebesman has added a few more soldiers to his platoon - the kind of soldiers that can act one hopes.  Among LA’s new recruits are “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” star Ramon Rodriguez and R & B singer Ne-Yo.  More after the jump.

With only hours to go before Hollywood’s golden season draws to a close, I thought it was a good time to do the post-mortem on the summer of 2009.  By now you may have heard that this summer was Hollywood’s most-profitable ever with grosses topping $4.3 billion. But has it felt like the biggest summer ever?  Not really.  Blockbusters like “Transformers 2″ and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” aside, 2009 was a season of expensive movies that didn’t live up to the hype and cheap movies that performed above all expectations.  Follow me now into the murky world of box office number crunching to see just how huge Hollywood’s hugest summer really was.

I’ll admit that the astonishing first day success of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” had me believing in magic.  A week ago I would have happily settled for seeing the sixth installment in Warner’s wizarding-world franchise outperform its predecessor - “The Order of the Phoenix”.  But then came that record-breaking midnight debut, followed by the “second-only to Tf2″ Wednesday total and suddenly my head was filled with headlines that trumpeted Potter’s $200 million success by Monday.  Sadly, it was not to be.  But just because those breathlessly elevated estimates haven’t quite panned out doesn’t mean that “Half-Blood Prince” has any reason to feel ashamed.  Both the weekend take of nearly $80 million and its five-day total of just under $160 million are series’ bests for Potter…

The weekend belonged to Sacha Baron Cohen and “Brüno” - had it gone down differently it would have made the last ten months of tireless promotion seem kind of over the top.  Though “Brüno” was the clear winner with $30 million in its first three days, this is not exactly the win that Universal may have hoped for when it picked up the rights to Baron Cohen’s latest mockumentary.  Not only did “Brüno” fail to blow those “Borat” percentages out of the water, but the prospects of the film showing “Borat” sized legs through the coming weeks is almost non-existent… unless watching two men, er, kiss suddenly becomes a lot more acceptable in the heartland.

If you didn’t see the The Late Show with David Letterman the other night, you missed a very unusual Top Ten. That’s because Dave had Optimus Prime doing the “Top Ten Things That Sound Cool When Spoken By A Giant Robot.” While I won’t say all ten were funny, the first 5 or 6 were. Take a look at the clip after the jump:

Few were willing to call this week’s box office race between blockbuster holdover “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and newcomer “Ice Age 3D: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”.  A popular all-ages franchise like “Ice Age” would seem to have the upper hand in its first week - especially with the added income that those 3D venues bring in.  But “Transformers” had crazy momentum, and as I said on Thursday, it seemed foolish to believe that such momentum would be halted after only ten days.  Accordingly, Friday went to “Transformers 2″ with $17.8 million against $17 for “Ice Age 3D”.  Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” came in third with $10 million, though for an adult movie competing against cartoon blockbusters that figure is higher than expected.  The totals for “Ice Age” and “Public Enemies” are not likely to get much bigger on Saturday - the studios can blame the Fourth of July for that one - but with “Transformers 2″ already claiming a staggering $500 million worldwide, I wouldn’t want to be the one to tell Michael Bay that a puny holiday could stop him.  Not much separates “tf2″ and “Ice Age” at this point, however, so check back tomorrow to see if Friday’s positions hold through the weekend…

The 2009 July Fourth holiday frame got underway on Wednesday with two new features debuting wide: “Ice Age 3D: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “Public Enemies”.  “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is still capable of doing plenty of damage to both as it angles to take a second weekend at number one, however.  Fox’s third “Ice Age” feature got off to a solid start with $13.8 million debut from 3,993 theatres (including a record 1,600 3D screenings).  This was good enough to trounce the Wednesday “Transformers” take of $10.9 million, though the two films should even out with $60 million a piece come Sunday.  Universal’s “Public Enemies” was always playing for third place, though the more adult-themed movie proved surprisingly potent on day one.  Solid reviews helped “Enemies” take in an estimated $8.2 million from its 3,319 runs.  This puts the film on track to exceed the projected $30 million five-day gross that Universal was floating a couple of days ago.    Check back to see which film will ultimately get the upper hand this weekend (though it seems foolish to bet against “Transformers 2″ at this point, doesn’t it?)

It doesn’t quite beat yesterday’s news about “Liquid Artillery“, but the announcement of three pairs of special edition “Transformers” shoes crafted entirely out of nostalgia comes close.  The three characters getting their own footwear are Megatron (Nike Zoom Flight Club), Soundwave (Nike Sharkalaid) and Bumblebee (Nike Zoom FP).  No word yet if the Soundwave shoe isn’t made for wearing as much as just sitting on your shelf telling other shoes what to do.  If it had a tape-recorder, that would be cool too.

But with the packaging and the nostalgia designed to appeal to kids, these shoes can’t be that expensive.  They’re meant for the new generation of “Transformers” fans.  I mean, they have Velcro instead of laces!  So, what do they cost?  $40?  $50?

Every once in awhile I forget to post something. The interview I did with Ramon Rodriguez for “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen” was one of those things.

I probably would have completely forgotten about it, but in today’s Hero Compex on the L.A. Times website, there is a story that says Ramon’s part in “Transformers 3″ might be a lot bigger. Since many of you have now seen the movie and might want to know more about Ramon and how he got the part…I figured better late than never.

So after the jump you can hear Ramon talk about filming the movie, the viral websites, how he got into acting, and we joke around about how many beautiful women were in the University scenes. He tells me he gave Michael Bay a lot of sh*t for it. It’s a good interview so take a look:

As of Sunday the estimates for Michael Bay’s “Transformers” sequel put the film at over $201 million - just shy of the all-time five day box office record.  By Monday afternoon, however, it appeared that Paramount Pictures had been a bit over zealous in reporting their weekend estimates (they’re called estimates for a reason).  The actual weekend numbers for “Transformers 2″ came in at $198.2 million - three million under what had been reported.  But here is where it gets really complicated - Paramount also apparently UNDER reported its grosses for Wednesday and Thursday.  In the end the domestic five day total for “Tf2″ stood at about $200 million so it all evened out - pretty much.  Now on to better news for you robot lovers - Monday’s $14.8 million estimate, when added to the film’s international box office haul of $204 million brings “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” above $418 million total!!  Those fabled first five days have also given the film the biggest June debut of all time as well as the highest grossing non-holiday, non-Friday opening and the seventh biggest debut weekend overall.  I know this is getting kind of confusing so I have included an updated chart to help make sense of all the crazy:

In case you’ve been in a coma for the past week, the news has been all about director Michael Bay and his sequel to “Transformers”… oh yeah, and a couple of people died.  The unexpected loss of Michael Jackson may have slowed “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” down on Thursday (Bay will have to blame that one-day drop of 53% on something) but Friday saw the film rebound with $36.7 million.  That was good enough to snag the biggest non-opening Friday title and give the suits over at Paramount some hope that a strong weekend would propel the film past $200 million in its first five days - which is exactly how things went down.  Saturday’s $40.6 million clinched an estimated weekend total of $112 million.  That, plus the $89.2 million the film earned in its first two days, pushed “Transformers 2″ over $201 million as of Sunday - achingly close to the $203.7 million five-day record of “The Dark Knight”. More after the jump:

Michael Bay wanted his “Transformers” sequel to be an “event picture” and that’s exactly what he got.  Following the record-breaking $60.6 million Wednesday opening, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” went on to earn an additional $28.6 million on Thursday for a two-day total of $89.2 million - already enough to put the film $10 million ahead of the entire opening weekend of that other “event picture” that had Bay all hot and bothered - “Star Trek”.  Factor in a gigantic Friday of $36.7 million and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is on track to break $195 million by Sunday.  That’s enough to crush the $152.4 million five day total of “Spiderman 2″ but is still short of the $203.7 million “The Dark Knight” earned in the same period - but never underestimate the drawing power of Giant F*cking Robots.  With all early estimates for “Transformers 2″ now surpassed, a total that bucks up against Batman would not be shocking… sad and wrong, but not shocking.