Paramount and Hasbro Entertainment’s Transformers One is shifting into high gear at the box office with $3.3M in Thursday preview screenings. The “More Than Meets the Eye” premiere began on Wednesday, with fan screenings at 7 pm and Thursday previews starting at 5 pm. The first Transformers animated film in nearly 40 years (God, I feel so old) is performing better than other family-oriented films this year, including Paramount’s IF ($1.75M), The Garfield Movie ($2.3M), and Trolls Band Together. Transformers One even drove past Travis Knight’s live-action Bumblebee film, which bowed to $2.15M.

With Transformers One rolling out to 3,978 domestic theaters, including IMAX and PLF screens, the animated origin story could burn enough rubber to reach $34M over its opening weekend. According to analysts, if positive word of mouth spreads and parents want to beat what remains of the heat in some areas, Transformers One could collect $40M or more. It’s worth noting that reviews for Transformers One are impressively positive, with an 87% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes after 98 reviews.

Our Editor-in-Chief, Chris Bumbray, gave Transformers One an 8/10 in his review. He said his audience laughed and cheered throughout the adventure. There was a massive round of applause at the end, which you don’t typically get at free screenings. Chris says the film is “goregous to look at,” while the animation feels fresh and distinctive.

On the horror end of the film spectrum, Demi Moore’s body horror film The Substance earned $512K in previews, comprised of Wednesday 7 p.m. showtimes in 785 theaters and another $327K in previews from 1,455 theaters last night from 4 p.m. showtimes.

We raved about The Substance during TIFF, saying the satiric and disturbing thriller would become highly controversial. There’s a chance it won’t play with older audiences, but younger genre audiences will eat it up. Some critics left the screening toward the end as the film’s contents became even more extreme.

Are you going to the movies this weekend? I’ve tickets for a 9:30 showing of The Substance tonight and hope to catch Transformers One on Saturday or Sunday. We’ll see. Let us know what your plans are in the comments section below.

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