The numbers are in. Moviegoers worldwide voted with their hard-earned dollars (and euros and other monetary currencies) and elected to go see Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Box office receipts placed the sequel at the top of this year's heap o' blockbusters, and by the time all is said and done, the film could rank among the top box office earners of all time. But why did so many people go buy tickets? Why did you?

As pointed out by Eugene Novikov, Transformers 2 "received the most hysterically negative reviews of 2009." Only 21% of reviews by critics at Rotten Tomatoes were positive. (Surprisingly, it fared better at the pickier MetaCritic, with 36% positive.) Eugene acknowledged that it's the kind of movie that defines "critic-proof." So, obviously, critical opinion had no bearing on the box office. Why did this movie hit so big? In his analysis, industry observer David Poland felt that producer Don Murphy and director Michael Bay should be celebrated, the former "for truly believing in this concept being a big home run" and the latter "for understanding the images that will draw massive numbers of people based on 2 minutes or less of images." So was it all about the concept and the trailers?

Marketing obviously plays a huge role in determining how a movie opens, as does, to a somewhat lesser extent, the cast and director. But what was it about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that pushed your button(s), elevating it to "must see" status? Take our poll and let us know!

If you don't know your Megatron from your Optimus Prime, join the club! Most giant robots look all the same to me, and the first Transformers movie felt like a comedown for Michael Bay after the gleeful insanity of Bad Boys II. Still, I've gotten a kick out ot reading a few of the reviews, like the one penned by our own Todd Gilchrist, as well as the harsh critical takedowns by Roger Ebert and Manohla Dargis. And now I'm wondering how Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will perform at the box office. Can it possibly recoup its huge production and marketing budget? How big is big?

The movie is off to a running start, earning an estimated $16 million from midnight screenings last night, according to Variety. That's less than The Dark Knight's $18.5 million last year, but Variety notes the Batman flick "had the advantage of opening on a Friday" and that Transformers 2 had "the best midnight run ever for a movie opening on a Wednesday." Transformers made $8.8 million on its opening night (Tuesday at 12:01 a.m.) in 2007 and went on to earn $146.6 million in its first six full days of screenings, including the July 4 holiday, per Box Office Mojo.

The record to beat for the first five days of release is $203.7 million, set by The Dark Knight. Can Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen get anywhere near that record? Take our poll and let us know: How much will it make in its opening five-day weekend?

Have rude moviegoers won? I've just about abandoned going to a convenient, comfortable local multiplex with very good sound and usually good projection, all because of rude, texting audience members at all hours of the day. Some of the worst offenders weren't even texting teens -- it was adults who were checking and responding to their e-mail throughout the movie. All those little flashes of light were incredibly distracting and drove me nuts. Still do, so at my current theaters of choice, I aim for the earliest screenings possible in order to minimize the crowds and the texting.

Now that I'm in a frenzy with righteous indignation, I almost forgot why I'm writing: our friends at Moviefone have created the Ultimate Moviegoers Poll. Why do you go out to the theater instead of staying home and watching DVDs? What is your biggest pet peeve (obviously, I've already expressed myself on that one)? How do you decide which movie to see? What's your favorite snack? Have you ever made out in a theater? Have you ever given birth in a theater?

OK, I made up that last one, but the poll is a good opportunity to sound off on your moviegoing experience. Is stadium seating important to you? What feature (3-D, IMAX, reserved seating, etc.) would you pay extra for? Take the poll and then come back here and share your thoughts. It's good to let off some steam every once in a while.

Movies based on characters from comics published by DC and Marvel took a summer sabbatical this year -- I'm trying really hard to pretend X-Men Origins: Wolverine was only a bad dream -- but the next couple of summers promise a healthy dash of costumed superheroes to liven up movie theaters. As noted in a post earlier today, next summer will see the return of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark in Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2. Two summers hence will feature the big-screen debut of Kenneth Branagh's vision of Thor, with Chris Hemsworth playing the hammer-wielding Norse god and Tom Hiddleston as his adopted brother / arch-nemesis Loki, followed by Joe Johnston's adventure The First Avenger: Captain America, set primarily during World War II. And 2012 will finally bring superhero team-up The Avengers, plus another unspecified movie. Could it be Edgar Wright's Ant-Man? Or something else?

Without being an expert on any of these characters -- for that I bow gratefully to our own Elisabeth Rappe -- from strictly a movie fan's perspective, I'm most anticipating The First Avenger: Captain America. That's because director Joe Johnston hasn't let me down yet, and the film's World War II setting and sense of wholesome, patriotic adventure play to his strengths. But the more I think about these projects, the more I like the variety of settings and styles. Sure, they're all superheroes, but there's plenty of room for the films to establish their own identities.

What do you think? What's your most anticipated Marvel movie? Feel free to suggest other characters that should have their own movie in the comments.

(Spoilers herein.)

Okay, so you lot have had two weekends now with which to see Sam Raimi's sublimely ridiculous Drag Me to Hell, and I'm seeing the debate that a couple of us waged out in front of the Paramount at SXSW last March coming back around on a grander scale, so I want to open up the floor.

Some have claimed that the third-act twist -- in which Alison Lohman's character mistakenly gives away an envelope with a quarter instead of an envelope with a cursed button and is consequently dragged to, um, Hell -- is telegraphed so far in advance that it takes the suspense out of the last reel or so, while others (including yours truly) believe that Raimi is smarter than that, and knows that we're in for this ride anyway, so even if we know that her efforts to pass on the curse are futile, we'll take a certain pleasure in knowing that her fate is sealed regardless.

Sure, Raimi could have simply cut out an insert shot of everything falling on the floor and mixing up, thus letting himself slightly, temporarily off his own hook. Lohman's character could have simply reached into her boyfriend's bag and grabbed the wrong one (oddly enough, the button falls out of her purse -- which she's holding -- but the quarter was placed in her boyfriend's bag, which is nowhere to be seen...). But he does seem to go just enough out of his way to let us know what's afoot. If you've seen the film, what do you think - rookie mistake or intentional wink?

It's that time again -- time for you to scrape together an absurd amount of money to go see a summer movie in theaters this weekend, and then report back on its quality by telling us what you thought on a scale of 1-10. We've been doing this all summer long, and so far it looks like Pixar's Up might have stolen a little thunder from Star Trek, as last I checked it was rockin' a perfect 10. But keep in mind it also depends on how many people vote, so Trek definitely still has a shot, as does this weekend's big special effects-laden summer blockbuster: Land of the Lost, starring Will Ferrell as a down-on-his-luck scientist who embarks on what looks like the trippiest alternate dimension vacation ever.

From Todd Gilchrist's review: "If Hunter S. Thompson were to write a story about his trip to a parallel, prehistoric dimension, then Land of the Lost might be the most accurate representation possible of its subsequent film adaptation. Directed by Brad Silberling and starring Will Ferrell, this update on the Sid and Marty Krofft television series from the 1970s is the strangest, filthiest summer movie I think I've ever seen – and it opens against one that features Mike Tyson, a tiger and Zach Galifianakis. But just as strangely, it's also damn entertaining, although it's hard to know whether you should or definitely shouldn't be indoctrinated beforehand to its weirdness."

You know what to do next -- feel free to vote in our poll and share your comments on the film below.

Did the Marx Brothers ever get serious? Pixar seems to have perfected the art of mixing dramatic themes into their comic adventures, pleasing audiences both young and old. (Moviefone's current poll of readers on Pixar's best reflects this as well, with a top choice that may surprise you.) Up is a rather magnificent tale that's filled with witty dialogue, visual gags, and laugh out loud moments, even as it "moves smoothly from romance to drama to fantasy to comedy to action-adventure and then back to sentimental drama again," in the words of Jette Kernion. Sam Raimi took modern horror in a new direction by coupling jolts with jokes in The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, expertly playing one against the other. His latest, Drag Me to Hell, marketed as a straight-up horror tale, is, in fact, "a convulsively funny movie with chills and thrills," as I've written before. Really, it's more of a comedy than anything else.

This week's widest releases appear to be more straightforward comedies: Todd Phillips' The Hangover stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis as three friends who stumble around Vegas after a bachelor party gone wild; Brad Silberling's Land of the Lost stars Will Farrell as a scientist who stumbles around a prehistoric world with dinosaurs and fantastic creatures. Meanwhile, Donald Petrie's My Life in Ruins looks more like a traditional romance with comedy and drama, starring Nia Vardalos as a Greek tour guide.

How do you like your laughs? Do you prefer your comedy straight up, no chaser? Or would you rather have other elements added to the mix: drama, horror, adventure? Take our poll and let us know.

Honestly, if we left the horror film off our 1-10 poll list this weekend, I would've heard complaints from the entire Cinematical staff -- most of whom were just smitten with Sam Raimi's latest creeptacular. Which is why we had to include it, along with Up, even though the latter will probably do better at the box office this weekend. Hopefully Raimi can take all the great buzz from this film and inject it into the next Spider-Man installment. Guess we'll see ...

From Peter's review: "Raimi has made a joyful romp through his personal horror playground and come up with a very entertaining horror-comedy that gets back to the basics. By that I mean creepy shadows on the wall and things that go bump in the night: all the odd, unexplained sights and sounds that keep anxious children awake at night, hiding under the covers. Any inkling that Raimi's soul might have been irretrievably chewed up by the Hollywood studio machinery -- a well-founded concern after the disappointing Spider-Man 3 -- quickly evaporates once the story gets underway."

Let us know how Drag Me to Hell ranks among the summer elite in the comments section and by voting in the poll below.