'Transformers' earns $60.6M on 1st day

LOS ANGELES, June 25 (UPI) -- Paramount Pictures says its film "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" grossed $60.6 million at the U.S. box office Wednesday, its first day in theaters.

The studio said the action flick bested the previous Wednesday record-holder -- 2007's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" -- by more than $15 million.

The "Transformers" sequel also became the second biggest single-day opening of all time behind 2008's "The Dark Knight," Paramount noted.

The second installment in the "Transformers" film franchise also earned the best-ever midnight run for a film released on a Wednesday, earning $16 million.

"(Director) Michael Bay knows how to make movies people love and we are off to an extraordinary start around the world," Paramount Pictures Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Brad Grey said in a statement Thursday.