Forget "Star Trek" or even "Up" as the 2009 box office leader. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is making its own bid to rule the movie theaters, already pulling in $60.6 million in its opening day.

The film, which opened Wednesday, also picked up $16 million from its midnight screenings, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Paramount film, whose writing team includes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman -- the writers of "Star Trek" -- continues the studio's dominance at the box office. If "Revenge of the Fallen" does reach $160 million by Sunday, it will give Paramount $400 million in domestic box office from just two films alone (and one in its first week).

The potential success of "Revenge of the Fallen" will only boost the already sky-high popularity of Orci and Kurtzman, who also are co-creators in the successful Fox series "Fringe."

The first "Transformers" film, released in 2007, pulled in $319.2 million to inhabit the No. 20 spot on the all-time box office list from MovieWeb behind "Shrek the Third" and ahead of "Iron Man." If this pace were to continue for "Revenge of the Fallen," and it doesn't have a significant drop off in its second and third weeks, that slot inhabited by the first film could be easily challenged.

If "Revenge of the Fallen" does remain stable, it won't be with the help of film critics. The movie was given just a 22 percent positive review rating from Rotten Tomatoes based on 160 reviews, calling the latest Transformers movie "noisy," "underplotted" and lacking a "human touch."

By comparison, the first "Transformers" had a better Rotten Tomatoes rating of 57 percent based on 206 reviews. Soon-to-be-ousted box office king "Star Trek" received a 95 percent positive rating from the site based on more than 260 reviews.