The first weekend estimates at the US box office show a dead heat for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs over the Fourth of July holiday, with both taking a whopping $42.5 million.

The final numbers will be in later today, but for the moment it looks like Transformers, despite a 61% drop on its ma-hooo-sive opening weekend, and Ice Age 3, despite taking less than its predecessor The Meltdown, have finished neck-and-neck.

Behind them was Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, with $26.2 million and $41 million in its first five days of release (it came out last Wednesday), followed by The Proposal and The Hangover, both of which saw drops of less than 40% on last weekend. The Hangover also sailed past the $200m mark, making it a huge comedy success.

Up went down more precipitously, after Dawn of the Dinosaurs moved in on many of its 3D screens, but still overtook The Incredibles to become the second highest-grossing Pixar movie with $264.9m.

Elsewhere, Star Trek was left a Romulan nose-hair’s breadth away from $250m, but that still leaves it behind Transformers’ astonishing $293.5m in just two weeks. Whatever deal Michael Bay made with the devil seems to be paying off.

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