Yesterday, the speculation was that Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, would snag itself in the region of $10m just from midnight screenings on its first day on release in the US.

That, it's fair to say, proved to be a bit of an underestimate.

It's been revealed that Michael Bay's loud and long sequel actually pulled in around $16m from its midnight showings, a performance that's only been bettered by The Dark Knight (which grabbed $18.5m).

That puts the smart money on the film getting to somewhere in the region of $150m by next Monday, and with little competition in its way over the coming weeks, it should at least match the $300m of the first film.

Unsurprisingly, discussions about Transformers 3 have already begun...