Robots have taken over the domestic box office this Independence Day as DreamWorks and Paramount 's Transformers raked in $29.08m on the US national holiday, the biggest July 4 gross to date. The film's performance beats Spider-man 2 at $21.9m in 2004.

Transformers - which has a 6.5 day opening in the US - has already generated $65.75m across 4,011 screens in its first 2.5 days of release in the US, including Monday night takings of $8.8m across over 3,000 screens. It took $27.87m on July 3, marking the highest US gross for a Tuesday ever, beating Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at $15.7m.

Internationally, the robots in disguise also fared well in 10 international territories at the weekend and took a sizable $36.2m across 2,133 screens. Transformers generated $13.1m in South Korea, $3.5m in Italy, $6.8m in Australia, $1.3m in New Zealand and $1.5m in Taiwan.

Michael Bay directed the action blockbuster, which stars Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel.