Love or hate Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, you have to admit that the movie will undoubtedly sell like gangbusters when it’s released on DVD and Bluray on October 20th. If you’re really in love with the film, you can pick up a special edition of it at Best Buy stores, where it comes bundled with an Optimus Prime miniature head replica — which we all know is a necessity in daily life — and a $50 gift card to SideshowCollectibles.com. Win.

We have a few behind the scenes clips from the making of Transformers 2, which are excerpts from larger special features you can plan on seeing on the Bluray. Check them out! The first deals with Sam Witwicky’s character arc, while the second and third deal with the conditions of filming on location in Egypt and the bombastic action scenes throughout. Take a gander.

Thanks to 360i and Paramount Home Entertainment for the heads up.

Mythology and Sam’s Storyline:

Filming in Egypt:

Behind the Action:

'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' (C) Warner Bros.

Online ticket sales for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince have been huge and are outpacing the top-grossing movie of the summer –a little film entitled Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

According to the online ticket merchant Fandango, more than 1,000 showings of Harry Potter 6 have already sold-out and has become one of the fastest-selling films in the company’s nine-year history. Currently, Potter represents 96% of total sales for the online firm.

“Harry is tracking to match last year’s juggernaut, The Dark Knight, in advance ticket sales,” said Fandango COO Rick Butler. “Showtimes are selling out at a very fast pace, and it’s clear that the film’s wider blockbuster appeal, solid word-of-mouth and positive Internet buzz on Half-Blood Prince are helping fuel the demand.”

The Harry Potter franchise is also looking to become the highest-grossing series in history, bypassing the long-running James Bond series. The past five Potter films have grossed $4.48 billion wordwide, putting the boy wizard story right story behind the beloved spy series which is holding onto the record with $5 billion.

The first installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, debuted at the box office in 2001, while James Bond has been saving damsels and fighting madmen since 1962 in Dr. No. The franchise currently has 22 films to its name.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is due out in theaters tomorrow.

While you wait, here’s the review.

Sacha Baron Cohen takes over the box office again, this time with his gay Austrian fame seeker in the mockumentary, Bruno. Taking in about 30 million, despite the overall slightly weakened amount of people flooding down to the theaters, Bruno still caught the eyes of people who took in Borat and loved it just like myself. With what appears to have possibly been in some people’s minds as a fight for first between the teen comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper and Bruno, the second of the two won within the first round.

I Love You, Beth Cooper, starring Hayden Panettiere, Paul Rust, Jack Carpenter and others, did not perform as well as it could have. Only scratching at the surface with 4.9 million, this high school graduation night film did not reach out towards its target audience as well as it could have. Possibly, if the film would have been released around early June which is technically high school graduation time, I’m sure the appeal of it to the teenage masses would have drawn in more sales, but that’s just me.

Everything else maintained the same sales as the previous week, except for the now slowly falling Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Even though it did break some box office records and has a hefty profit from tickets, the robot friendly movie is sliding itself down into third with 24.2 million. The rest of the box office is listed below:

Weekend Box Office (July 10-12)

1. Bruno  ($30.6 Million)
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs  ($27.6 Million)
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen  ($24.2 Million)
4. Public Enemies  ($13.7 Million)
5. The Proposal  ($10.6 Million)
6. The Hangover  ($9.9 Million)
7. I Love You, Beth Cooper  ($4.9 Million)
8. Disney/Pixar’s Up  ($4.7 Million)
9. My Sister’s Keeper  ($4.2 Million)
10. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3  ($1.5 Million)

Get your wands at the ready, because this Wednesday is the release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Then jumping its way out into limited theaters is 500 Days of Summer, Bull and many others.

For the first time which in this reporter’s opinion seems to be a long while is a tie for first over this past 4th of July weekend. Dreamworks’ Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ties up with the robot-clad Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen both coming in with 42.5 million each. The third installment of the Ice Age animated trilogy involves the fuzzy mammoth Manny (Ray Romano) and his wife Ellie (Queen Latifah) expecting, while Sid (John Leguizamo) gets himself into some big time hijinks that even his friend Diego (Dennis Leary) cannot save him out of as they discover a world underneath them of dinosaurs. Even though Ice Age 3 did have a really strong opening, especially on this past holiday weekend, Transformers 2 definitely is starting to loose steam which is most likely coming from the big time negative reviews on the flick.

Also slinking its way into the top three is Michael Mann’s 1930′s gangster drama, based off of true events, Public Enemies. Starring Johnny Depp, Chrisitian Bale and Marion Cotillard, the thrilling dramatic tale took in 26.1 million. With an estimated budget of 80 million, one can easily see this movie make it all back and then some with the fairly positive word of mouth.

Earlier released movies such as The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Year One have thrown themselves into bomb status, making this summer movie season evenly matched with overly outstanding pics and ones that just fall straight on their faces. Pelham only scrapped in 58 million total despite its 100 million dollar budget which it does not seem it will make back, along with Year One having 38 million despite its 60 million budget. Enough chit chat, lets take a look at the results below:

Weekend Box Office (July 3-5)

1. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs  ($42.5 Million)
2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen  ($42.5 Million)
3. Public Enemies  ($26.1 Million)
4. The Proposal  ($12.7 Million)
5. The Hangover  ($10.4 Million)
6. Disney/Pixar’s Up  ($6.5 Million)
7. My Sister’s Keeper  ($5.2 Million)
8. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3  ($2.5 Million)
9. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian  ($2.1 Million)
10. Year One  ($2.1 Million)
11. Star Trek  ($1.8 Million)
12. Away We Go  ($1.1 Million)

Note: The list is extended due to two ties in total numbers over the weekend

Time to draw out another huge selection of movies with this Friday’s new releases that include I Love You Beth Cooper, Bruno, Blood: The Last Vampire, Soul Power among many others. Keep on going to your local theater fellow movie goers!

Is this a minibot on my tail?

Although normally we do push a weekend box office report, since it is summer time and there are a fairly larger number of films being released mid-week, we cannot ignore it any longer. Sam Witwicky and his friendly Autobots have succumbed to the fallen after this past Wednesday. No, I am not referring to The Fallen in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but to the cute and cuddly mammals in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

Taking in around 13.8 million on its opening day, reptiles and weasels alike reigned at the top of the box office. Optimus and his own Matrix of Leadership managed to take in 10.9 million, and all though it does not seem that impressive, it just brings them even closer to making around 300 million domestically (and in its second week too). Now you must be pissed and or wondering, what’s the deal with Michael Mann’s latest cinematic achievement of sorts, Public Enemies? It still made a smaller but still noticeable amount, bringing in 8.2 million for its first day.

The weekend has not even begun though, and then is when these three films will really duke it out. Stay on here to check out Philip’s weekly box office prediction article, The Wrong Guess along with the monday released weekend box office from myself.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the film that just won’t die. Just when you think that the headiness of its debut was over, boom, the damn thing picks up steam and is closing in on becoming the biggest movie of the year.

Not bad for a film that can not find a friend in the press.

The critic/audience gap aside, our pals over at Moviemistakes.com alerted us to the obscene amount of blunders made during production. MM counted 40 mistakes, which makes the Michael Bay feature the “most mistake-ridden movie of the year”, surpassing the 19 goofs from Angels & Demons.

Any chance to post a pic of Megan Fox, I will take it.

My favorite mistake: When Sam is brought to the cemetery to meet Optimus, you can see the green mark on the grass where Sam is supposed to stand while talking to him.

Check out the site for more goodness.

While you’re here, how about you check out Atomic Popcorn’s review of the film from our crack staff of cinematic bloviators?

Matthew Snider – “Bay does know what he is doing whether you like him or not; he put together some of the cleanest actions shots around, if you ask me.”

Philip Barret – “As much as audiences believed a man could fly in 1978, they’ll certainly buy that Spielberg and Bay are keeping the Autobots hidden somewhere in an abandoned Hollywood lot.”

Erik Buckman – “One can have all the BOOM, hotness and amazing special effects they want but if the story is a mind-numbing waste of time, then the movie is an epic fail. Exhibit A: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

Nobody at Paramount Pictures this morning had to worry about the overall box office (and those that do should get their head examined) intake totaled in so far for action mainstream director Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Joining The Dark Knight in its gigantic numbers (despite the huge wave of negative reviews), Transformers 2 raked in a cool 108.9 million, bringing in over 200 million domestically ever since its June 24th release. Too bad Philip guesstimated a little too far (121 million) even though judging from the ridiculous lines in front of movie theaters all over the nation, you’d think it did accumulate that much.

"...and then Optimus shoots and KABOOM!"

Don’t forget, for those of you who actually remembered, there were two other openings during this past weekend. Then again, of course almost all of us would forget My Sister’s Keeper amidst the huge robots beating the ever-loving crap out of each other. The overly melodramatic film centering on a young girl suffering from cancer and her sister demanding emancipation in order to choose whether or not she wants to literally give a part of herself to her sibling in order to let her live. Starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva among many others, the film only managed to scrape in 12.4 million (unlike the 9 million prediction).

There also is the recent release of the Michelle Pfeiffer romantic drama, Cheri. Based off a novel of the same name, the story follows a courtesan as she straightens out a friend’s young adult son, only for him to fall for her and turn his life upside down once they depart from one another. Since its in such a limited release, Cheri managed to only make 405,701 total. Another honorable mention of new releases goes to the Kathryn Bigelow directed war drama, The Hurt Locker. Only in limited release in Los Angeles and New York (until July 10th) the film took in 145,352 and has the nice nod of having the best per screen average despite its ridiculously limited release.

Overall, the only films that seemed to show a little bit of promise despite the monstrous takeover from the Autobots and the Decepticons was the remainder of the top five (The Proposal, Up and The Hangover). Check out the rest below:

Weekend Box Office (June 26-28)

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen  ($108.9 Million)
2. The Proposal  ($18.5 Million)
3. The Hangover  ($17 Million)
4. Disney/Pixar’s Up  ($13 Million)
5. My Sister’s Keeper  ($12.4 Million)
6. Year One  ($6 Million)
7. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3  ($5.4 Million)
8. Star Trek  ($3.7 Million)
9. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian  ($3.6 Million)
10. Away We Go  ($1.7 Million)

Everyone sharpen up their 1930′s dialect, because this week blasts off on Wednesday with the release of the anticipated Michael Mann film, Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. Along with it on Wednesday comes the third installment of the Twentieth Century Fox film, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. On Friday comes The Girl From Monaco and I Hate Valentine’s Day.

Critics be damned. Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen made $112 million over this past weekend, making it the first $100 million weekend winner of 2009. This brings the action extravaganza to a staggering total of $203.8 million domestically, but love of giant fighting robots isn’t only held by Yanks. Globally Transformers 2 has made over $700 million, easily beating Bay’s $200 million budget.

The great critical divide.

Pundits expected the main event of the summer to win big and it accomplished that goal with ease, becoming the second highest-grossing film during a five-day debut behind The Dark Knight.

Though plagued with controversy over two of the robots and their supposed depictions of inner-city youth, Transformers 2 also gave its human star, Shia LaBeouf, the biggest opening of his blockbuster-intensive career.

The movie also marks the largest opening ever on IMAX, showing on 169 screens.

Disney/Pixar powerhouse, Up, has earned just over $250 million, edging out Star Trek as the year’s top-earning movie. The position will be short-lived as Transformers looks to leap the family-friendly film by this time next weekend despite solid competition from Michael Mann’s Public Enemies.