Friday, July 6------The July 4th Weekend (which this year is being celebrated from Wednesday, July 4 through Sunday, July 9) is one of the box office bonanza weekends of the year. In a summer that has seen very few box office champs (SPIDER-MAN 3 and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3 the obvious exceptions), studios are looking to films opening this critical week to give a necessary transfusion to Hollywood box office coffers. Just mid-week through this critical long weekend, the sci-fi action film TRANSFORMERS has smashed yet another box-office record by grossing $29.1 million on its second full day of release -- the most ever for a July 4th holiday, according to figures released yesterday. The film, based on the shape-shifting characters of the popular toy line and cartoon television series, broke the previous Independence Day record held by  SPIDER-MAN 2, which grossed nearly $22 million on July 4, 2004. TRANSFORMERS second-day tally across the United States and Canada also marked the biggest-ever Wednesday for a non-sequel movie, exceeding the $26.6 million in ticket sales generated by  THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST on February 25, 2004.

TRANSFORMERS pulled in $8.8 million from advance screenings on Monday night, then grossed $27.9 million its first full day to amass the highest Tuesday haul of all time. That sum beat the previous Tuesday benchmark of $15.7 million, set last year by PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, but fell far short of the $59.8 million single-day record set by SPIDER-MAN 3 two months ago, on a Friday. TRANSFORMERS is expected to clear more than $65 million for over the unusually long July 4th holiday weekend (since Independence Day fell on Wednesday this year).

This week is one of the most highly prized debut launches of the year for film studios. With children out of school and families looking for entertainment that all members can enjoy, the potential for box office bonanzas is huge. Here is a brief review of films that came out over the Independence Day holidays in years past.

Airplane! (1980)

Back to the Future (1985)

.

Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Apollo 13 (1995)

Independence Day (1996)

Men in Black (1997)

.

Armageddon (1998)

Wild Wild West (1999)

The Patriot / The Perfect Storm (2000)

Men in Black II (2002)

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

War of the Worlds (2005)

Superman Returns (2006)

Sandy Mandelberger, Coming Attractions Editor