Friday saw a 40% increase in box office revenue over the previous Friday.

Although opening huge on Wednesday with a mammoth $60.6M and followed on Thursday with an impressive $28.6M, the first bona-fide and expected blockbuster of the year rumbled in to theatres: TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN. The film took in a very big estimate of $36.7M on Friday to take its three day total to a whopping $125.9M. Estimates are now tracking the film to take in as much as $190M by Sunday but the jury is out as to whether or not it can eclispe the previous 5-day record holder THE DARK KNIGHT which took in $203.5M. Word of mouth on the new Transformers film is absolutely scathing. Although this has had no effect on the opening of the film, it may take a big drop later in its run, particularly next weekend, although fanboys may keep this wreck of a film alive much longer than necessary.

Dropping in to second place, perhaps more sharply than expected, is last Friday's number one champ THE PROPOSAL, which took in an estimated $6.1M on Friday. The Sandra Bullock/Ryan Reynolds rom-com dropped a bigger than expected 51% on last Friday's gross which is a little disturbing given it should have worked as counter-programming to Transformers but that is not the case. The film may however do better over the course of the weekend.

Third place goes to one of the big winners of 2009, THE HANGOVER, which held on well to take in an estimated $5.3M on Friday and dropping only 36.9% on last Friday's take. The film has earned a stellar $171M at the domestic box office so far.

Opening in fourth place, and perhaps lost in the wake of the new Transformers film, is Alec Balwin/Cameron Diaz drama MY SISTER'S KEEPER which earned an estimated $5M on Friday. Despite being decently reviewed, it seemed audiences were not in the mood for a sadder film about life lessons.

Disney/Pixar's UP entered fifth place this weekend with an estimated $3.9M as it loses business to the new Transformers film. Not that this matters as the film has already earned a massive $241M at the domestic box office.

One of last Friday's openers, YEAR ONE, crashed and burned this Friday, earning an estimated $2M and losing a mammoth 76% of it audience from last Friday. This film is now officially a turkey, as it has only earned $28M against a production budget of $60M.

The remaining box office estimates for films on Friday are as follows: THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 ($1.5M), NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN ($1.2M), STAR TREK ($1M), AWAY WE GO ($0.5M).

The North American box office took in an estimated total of $63.5 million for the whole of Friday 26th June 2009.