Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder and Usher sang emotional farewells Tuesday to Michael Jackson, who was hailed as “the greatest entertainer that ever lived” and described by his tearful 11-year-old daughter Paris as “the best father you could ever imagine.”

Some 18,000 fans, family members and friends took part in a public memorial for Jackson in the Los Angeles sports arena where the singer had rehearsed the day before his death for a highly anticipated series of comeback concerts.

Jackson’s brothers, each wearing a single sequined glove in homage to his signature look, carried the singer’s golden casket into the downtown Staples Center.

Carey performed Jackson’s 1970 ballad “I’ll Be There,” Usher’s voice cracked as he sang “Gone Too Soon” and the King of Pop’s three children made a rare public appearance without veils used for years by Jackson to shield them from the media.

But it was Jackson himself who loomed larger than life, shown in old concert footage, music videos and news clips, singing, dancing his moonwalk and surrounded by adoring crowds.

“The more I think about Michael, and talk about Michael, the more I think that ‘King of Pop’ is not good enough,” said Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, who signed The Jackson 5 to a recording contract in 1968. “I think he is simply the greatest entertainer that ever lived.”

The two-hour memorial focused on Jackson’s musical achievements, overshadowed in the last 10 years by the darker side of the singer’s life, including his humiliating 2005 trial and acquittal on charges of child sex abuse.

Jackson’s sudden death from cardiac arrest in Los Angeles on June 25 at the age of 50 stunned fans across the world and sent sales of his biggest hits from albums such as “Thriller” and “Off the Wall” back to the top of music charts.

President Barack Obama, on a visit to Russia, said he was “one of the greatest entertainers of our generation, perhaps any generation,” and added: “I think like Elvis, like Sinatra, like The Beatles, he became a core part of our culture.

The memorial focused on Jackson’s 45-year musical career in which he was awarded 13 Grammys, his charity work for childrens’ groups and his role in opening the mainstream pop and celebrity world to African-Americans.

It was broadcast live on U.S. national TV networks and Internet company Akamai, which handles 20 percent of the world’s Web traffic, said it was the most widely viewed event on the Web since the inauguration of Obama in January.

Gordy was among the few who referred obliquely to Jackson’s recent troubles. “Sure there was some sad times and maybe some questionable decisions on his part, but Michael Jackson accomplished everything he dreamed of,” said Gordy.

“NOTHING STRANGE” ABOUT DADDY

Jackson was on the eve of a comeback after his career collapsed in the 1990s. The exact cause of his death is still awaiting toxicology results amid reports of abuse of prescription drugs, including the powerful narcotic Diprivan.

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton, who has lashed out at media coverage of the bizarre aspects of Jackson’s life, had a message for the singer’s three children.

“Wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with,” he said.

The children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris and Prince Michael, 7, joined the family on stage for a mass chorus of Jackson’s inspirational hits “We Are the World” and “Heal the World.”

Paris, in tears, took the microphone to say: “Ever since I was born my daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine and I just wanted to say I love him, so much.”

Jackson’s family and close friends held a brief private ceremony earlier Tuesday at a Los Angeles cemetery before the memorial and were reported afterwards to have gathered at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

But the destination of the singer’s body remained unknown with speculation that he could yet be laid to rest at his beloved ranch, Neverland, in central California.

Police had estimated more than 250,000 people would gather at the arena but the orderly crowds were much smaller than expected.

Police, security, escorts and sanitation for the memorial are expected to cost cash-strapped Los Angeles city council nearly $4 million and the city council Tuesday launched a website asking for fans to make donations toward the costs.

(Additional reporting by Jill Serjeant, Alex Dobuzinskis and Jim Finkle; Editing by Mary Milliken and David Storey) – Reuters

Details of Michael Jackson’s public memorial remained under wraps on Sunday as Los Angeles police braced for a huge crowd of fans expected to turn out and again warned those without tickets to stay away.

About 1.6 million people registered to be one of 17,500 people inside the memorial at the Staples Center sports arena in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday or to watch it on large video screens at a nearby theater.

Fans who won tickets were to be told by e-mail on Sunday. The company sponsoring the event will pick 8,750 names from a list of online lottery entrants each winner will receive two tickets.

A family spokesman declined to give details of the event, such as who might eulogize Jackson or which of the King of Pop’s celebrity friends may perform. He did not offer specifics of a separate, private family funeral, and police told Reuters they did not have any information about the private ceremony, either.

A person involved in planning Tuesday memorial, TV producer Ken Ehrlich, told the New York Daily News that the service will be respectful and not a party.

“It’s not going to have all the bells and whistles,” Ehrlich told the newspaper. “We want to keep it low-key.”

Assistant Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said he expected the public memorial to last about two hours, and as police did last Friday, urged Jackson fans to stay away unless they have tickets.

“If they want to watch it, they will need to find a TV and a place to watch it,” McDonnell said, adding that blocks around the venues will be cordoned off.

Police will close streets around the Staples Center, but are still anticipating groups of onlookers and fans from all around the world who did not get tickets to show up.

Asked if police will wear riot gear, McDonnell said no, but added that police will “use crowd management” techniques if that is necessary. He said he expected that the police will be able to handle a big crowd if one shows.

“L.A. is used to big events. This is Hollywood,” McDonnell told a press conference on Sunday.

The event is expected to be broadcast live on U.S. television and streamed on the Internet.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall) – Reuters

Law enforcement sources have reportedly recovered a potent anesthetic from inside Michael Jackson’s Holmby Hills home.

Propofol, which is generally used for surgeries and clinical procedures, was one of many drugs uncovered at the home, according to the Los Angeles Times. It is commonly referred to as Diprivan and is administered by IV for anesthesia. In as little as 40 seconds, the drug can cause the patient to experience hypnosis, the publication noted.

Officials have confirmed to E! News that prescription drugs were found in the home, but declined to specify exactly what they were. The DEA has joined the investigation.

Earlier this week, former Jackson nutritionist Cherilyn Lee claimed that she warned the entertainer about taking certain drugs, just five days before his death. She claimed Jackson said he was struggling with insomnia and virtually begged her to give him Diprivan.

“‘Find me an anesthesiologist—I don’t care how much money they want—find me an anesthesiologist to be with me here overnight and give me this IV,’ ” Lee quoted Jackson during an ABC News interview.

The nutritionist said that she told Jackson the medicine could have lethal effects, including cardiac arrest—which Jackson apparently died from on June 25.

“I said, ‘This is not a safe medicine, please don’t take this,’ ” Lee told the network.

As the investigation continues into the death of music’s biggest icon, the city of Los Angeles is preparing for Jackson’s memorial service Tuesday at the Staples Center. – EOnline

Karl Malden, the acting great who worked the Waterfront with Marlon Brando and patroled The Streets of San Francisco with Michael Douglas, died today at 97.

Malden passed away from natural causes at his home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, daughter Mila Doerner told the Los Angeles Times.

While Gen Xers may know Malden best as the guy who warning us not to leave home without an American Express card in a series of 1980s TV commercials, he was one of the most respective stars in Tinseltown.

Known for his tough-guy persona and crooked nose, Malden rose through the Hollywood ranks with fellow Method man Brando, winning a Supporting Actor Oscar as best buddy Mitch to the latter’s Stanley Kowalski in 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire.

Malden was nominated again in the same category three years later for playing a priest who persuaded Brando’s Terry Malloy to testify against a mob-backed union boss in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront.

Other notable movie credits include Baby Doll (1956), Fear Strikes Out (1957), Pollyanna (1960), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Gypsy (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), The Cincinnatti Kid (1965) and Patton, playing Gen. Omar Bradley opposite Oscar winner George C. Scott.

Malden showed Douglas the ropes as Lt. Mike Stone on the hit ’70s TV crime series The Streets of San Francisco, earning four Emmy nominations. He eventually won an Emmy for his supporting role in the 1984 TV movie Fatal Vision.

In 2003, the Screen Actors Guild presented Malden with its Lifetime Achievement Award, while the U.S. House of Representatives even authorized a Los Angeles post office to be named in his honor.

No word yet on funeral arrangements. – E-Online

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Michael Jackson’s cardiologist, who met with detectives Saturday, has provided information that will help with the investigation into the singer’s death, the Los Angeles, California, Police Department said.

The department said late Saturday that it conducted an “extensive interview” with the doctor, who may have been the last person to see Jackson alive.

“Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician who was with Michael Jackson at the time of his collapse, voluntarily contacted the Los Angeles Police Department,” the statement said.

“Detectives assigned to Robbery-Homicide Division met with Dr. Murray and conducted an extensive interview. Dr. Murray was cooperative and provided information which will aid the investigation.”

Jackson’s family suspects Murray can answer some lingering questions about the singer’s last hours, but they have been unable to contact him, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday. Watch latest developments in Jackson’s death investigation »

“The routine inquiry is now an investigation,” Jesse Jackson said. “They (Jacksons) didn’t know the doctor. … He should have met with the family, given them comfort on the last hours of their son.”

Murray’s lawyer said earlier that the doctor was upset but willing to cooperate.

“It’s a human tragedy and he’s upset obviously over the loss of Mr. Jackson. But he is not a suspect in the death of Mr. Jackson,” Matthew Alford said. Watch attorney for Jackson’s doctor say his client is not a suspect »

Los Angeles police, who met briefly with Murray after Jackson’s death Thursday, had been trying to set up the interview.

“It is important to interview everybody that was in contact with Mr. Jackson immediately prior to his demise particularly anyone involved in his medical care,” said Deputy Police Chief Charlie Beck. “So it’s extremely important to talk to his doctor.”

Detectives impounded Murray’s car, which was parked at the singer’s rented home, because it may contain evidence related to Jackson’s death, possibly prescription medications.

Police have released no information on what they may have found.

Alford said he did not have any details.

“I have no information as to what if any treatment, or course of treatment he was doing for Mr. Jackson at all,” he said.

Also Saturday, the Jackson family spoke out in a statement to People magazine and obtained by CNN. Read statement from People

“In one of the darkest moments of our lives we find it hard to find the words appropriate to this sudden tragedy we all had to encounter,” said patriarch Joseph Jackson, speaking on behalf of the family.

“Our beloved son, brother and father of three children has gone so unexpectedly, in such a tragic way and much too soon,” he said. “It leaves us, his family, speechless and devastated to a point, where communication with the outside world seems almost impossible at times.

The statement went on to thank fans worldwide for their condolences and expressions of grief.

“Please do not despair, because Michael will continue to live on in each and every one of you,” Joseph Jackson said.

Family members including Jackson’s mother, Katherine, were at the estate Jackson had rented in Holmby Hills. Around midday, two moving vans pulled up. One left empty, and the other apparently contained objects from the house. Other vehicles came and went, including a silver Range Rover driven by a plain clothes police officer.

Vidal Herrera, founder of 1-800-AUTOPSY, a specialty autopsy business, told CNN on Saturday that the Jackson family had contacted the business to inquire about possibly having a second autopsy done there.

Herrera, a former deputy field investigator for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, said the funeral home where Jackson’s body was taken contacted him on Thursday, and a representative of the family called him on Friday. The name of the funeral home was not disclosed.

He said he told the funeral home that he didn’t believe another autopsy was required. An autopsy was performed Friday by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. The body was moved to a funeral home Friday night.

It was not immediately confirmed early Sunday whether a second autopsy was performed.

Michael Jackson died Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office told reporters Friday that more tests must be conducted before a cause of death can be determined. That could take four to six weeks.

The coroner said there was no indication of external trauma or foul play.

The 50-year-old pop star was discovered unconscious Thursday by paramedics at his home, where Murray apparently had tried to revive him. He was rushed to a Los Angeles medical center, where he was pronounced dead. Listen to the 911 call »

Meanwhile, radio stations around the world dusted off the singer’s records and fans took part in hastily-organized dance celebrations.

“I just felt I had to come, just to say goodbye,” said Los Angeles nurse Lydia Cook. “I could never afford to go to his concerts but I kind of grew up with him. And I loved his music.”

On the island of Cebu in the Philippines, 1,400 of the most hardened prisoners spent 10 hours perfecting a carefully choreographed 15-minute tribute to Jackson. Watch prisoners’ tribute to Jackson »

“We idolize him really,” said Mavin Cabido, a convicted robber. “The moonwalk is my favorite. I like that.”

The prisoners at the Cebu Detention and Rehabilitation Center in central Philippines reprised their performance of “Thriller,” which has garnered more than 24 million views since 2007 — when prison supervisor Byron Garcia first uploaded it to the video-sharing Web site.

Garcia said he had hoped Jackson would, one day, come to Cebu and dance himself.

“Now it’s not going to happen,” Garcia said. – CNN

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Michael Jackson knew “exactly how his fate would be played out” and feared his death would echo that of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie Presley wrote in an online blog posted Friday morning.

Presley — the daughter of Elvis, the “King of Rock,” and the ex-wife of Jackson, the “King of Pop” — wrote on her MySpace page that she wanted “to say now what I have never said before because I want the truth out there for once.” Her publicist confirmed Presley wrote the blog.

She said her short marriage to Jackson — from May 1994 until January 1996 — “was not ‘a sham’ as is being reported in the press,” but she divorced him because she was “in over my head in trying” to save Jackson “from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.”

Jackson talked with her about his death during “a deep conversation” 14 years ago about “the circumstances of my father’s death.” Watch more from Presley on Jackson »

“At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, ‘I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did,’ ” Presley wrote.

“I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.”

That conversation haunted Presley as she watched television coverage of Jackson’s death Thursday, she said.

“I am sitting here watching on the news [as] an ambulance leaves the driveway of his home, the big gates, the crowds outside the gates, the coverage, the crowds outside the hospital, the cause of death and what may have led up to it and the memory of this conversation hit me, as did the unstoppable tears,” she wrote.

“A predicted ending by him, by loved ones and by me, but what I didn’t predict was how much it was going to hurt when it finally happened.”

Elvis Presley collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion — Graceland — on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem.

“As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play the exact scenario I saw happen on August 16, 1977, happening again right now with Michael (A sight I never wanted to see again) just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted,” she wrote.

“I wanted to ’save him’,” she wrote. “I wanted to save him from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.”

“The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow,” Presley wrote.

Their marriage, which some suggested was only to help Jackson’s image, was real, she said.

“It was an unusual relationship, yes, where two unusual people who did not live or know a ‘normal life’ found a connection, perhaps with some suspect timing on his part,” she wrote. “Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much.”

Presley called Jackson “an incredibly dynamic force and power that was not to be underestimated.”

“When he used it for something good, it was the best and when he used it for something bad, It was really, REALLY bad,” she wrote.

Presley’s blog entry ended with a thank you to those who would read it.

“I really needed to say this right now, thanks for listening.”

Presley’s blog can be found online at http://bit.ly/5wR7p – CNN

We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.

Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived.

Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate him but he was completely unresponsive.

We’re told one of the staff members at Jackson’s home called 911.

La Toya ran in the hospital sobbing after Jackson was pronounced dead.

Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II.

L.A. Coroner Craig Cornell confirms Michael Jackson is Dead – TMZ

Farrah Fawcett, an actress and television star whose good looks and signature flowing hairstyle influenced a generation of women and, beginning with a celebrated pinup poster, bewitched a generation of men, died Thursday morning in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 62.

Her death, at a Santa Monica hospital, was announced by her spokesman, Paul Bloch, The Associated Press reported.

Ms. Fawcett had been battling intestinal cancer since late 2006, and to an extraordinary degree that fight was played out in public, generating enormous interest worldwide. Her face, often showing the ravages of cancer, became a tabloid fixture, and updates on her health became staples of television entertainment news.

In May, her cancer battle was chronicled in an NBC primetime documentary, “Farrah’s Story,” some of it shot on home video. An estimated 9 million people viewed it. Ms. Fawcett had initiated the project with a friend and producer, Alana Stewart, after she first learned of her cancer.

Ms. Fawcett’s doctors declared her cancer-free after they removed a tumor in 2007, but her cancer returned later that year. She had been receiving alternative treatment in Germany and was hospitalized in early April for a blood clot resulting from that treatment, according to her doctor, Lawrence Piro. Her cancer had also spread to her liver, Dr. Piro told The Associated Press.

Ms. Fawcett’s career was a patchwork of positives and negatives, fine dramatic performances on television and on stage as well as missed opportunities. She first became famous when a poster of her in a red bathing suit, leonine mane flying, sold more than twice as many copies as posters of Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable combined.

Ms. Fawcett won praise for her serious acting later in her career, typically as a victimized woman. But she remained best known for the hit 1970s television show “Charlie’s Angels,” in which she played Jill Munroe, one of three beautiful female private detectives employed by an unseen male boss who (in the voice of John Forsythe) issued directives and patronizing praise over a speaker phone. Her pinup fame had led the producers to cast her.

Ms. Fawcett and her fellow angels, played by Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson, brought evildoers to justice, often while posing in decoy roles that put them in skimpy outfits or provocative situations.

“Charlie’s Angels,” created and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg for ABC, was a phenomenon, finishing the 1976-77 season as the No. 5 network show, the highest-rated television debut in history at that time.

Ms. Fawcett was its breakout star. Although she left the show after one season and returned only sporadically thereafter, the show’s influence — among other things, it inspired two much later feature films starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu — was so indelible that she was forever associated with it.

The series, whose popularity coincided with the burgeoning women’s movement, brought new attention to issues of female sexuality and the influence of television. Commentators debated whether the show’s three athletic, scantily clad heroines were exemplars of female strength or merely a harem of pretty puppets doing the bidding of a patriarchal leader.

As the show’s most popular star, Ms. Fawcett became another sort of poster girl, for the “jiggle TV” of the ’70s, and a lightning rod for cultural commentators. Chadwick Roberts, writing in The Journal of Popular Culture in 2003, described her “unbound, loose and abundant hair” as marking “a new emphasis on femininity after the androgyny of the late ’60s and early ’70s.”

In 1978 Playboy magazine called Ms. Fawcett “the first mass visual symbol of post-neurotic fresh-air sexuality.” She herself put it more succinctly: “When the show got to be No. 3, I figured it was our acting. When it got to be No. 1, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra.”

Ms. Fawcett acknowledged that her sex symbol status was a mixed blessing. It made her famous, but it often obscured the acting talent that brought her three Emmy nominations, most notably for “The Burning Bed,” a critically acclaimed movie about spousal abuse.

“I don’t think an actor ever wants to establish an image,” she said in an interview with The New York Times in 1986. “That certainly hurt me, and yet that is also what made me successful and eventually able to do more challenging roles. That’s life. Everything has positive and negative consequences.”

Ferrah Leni Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Tex., on Feb. 2, 1947. Her father, James, worked in the oil pipeline industry; her mother, Pauline, was a homemaker.

After dropping out of the University of Texas, Ms. Fawcett moved to Hollywood to pursue acting. She soon found work in commercials for Wella Balsam shampoo and Noxzema shaving cream, among other products. A Noxzema commercial in which she shaved the face of the football star Joe Namath was shown during the 1973 Super Bowl.

Ms. Fawcett also found acting work in television, landing guest roles on “I Dream of Jeannie,” “The Flying Nun” and other sitcoms. She appeared in four episodes of “The Six Million Dollar Man,” whose star, Lee Majors, she had married in 1973. When Ms. Fawcett was cast on “Charlie’s Angels,” she had a clause written into her contract that allowed her to leave the set every day in time to prepare dinner for Mr. Majors. She was billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors until 1979. She and Mr. Majors divorced in 1982.

The poster that ignited Ms. Fawcett’s career was shot at the Bel Air home she shared with Mr. Majors. “She was just this sweet, innocent, beautiful young girl,” said Bruce McBroom, who took the photograph. Searching for a backdrop to Ms. Fawcett in her one-piece red swimsuit (which she chose instead of a bikini because of a childhood scar on her stomach), he grabbed an old Navajo blanket from the front seat of his 1937 pickup.

After leaving “Charlie’s Angels” to pursue a film career (she came back for guest appearances for two more seasons), Ms. Fawcett made three forgettable movies in quick succession, then salvaged her reputation by returning to television. In 1981 she starred in the mini-series “Murder in Texas,” as the wife of a doctor who is subsequently accused of murdering her; in 1984 she made “The Burning Bed,” a portrait of a battered wife.

Both movies were shown on NBC, and both performances received strong reviews. In “The Burning Bed,” Ms. Fawcett was one of the first prime-time actresses to forgo cosmetics in favor of a convincing characterization.

In 1983 she played another victimized woman who fights back — a vengeance-seeking rape victim — in the Off Broadway production of “Extremities.” She took over for Karen Allen, who had replaced Susan Sarandon. Ms. Fawcett went on to star in the film version of the play in 1986.

Other roles followed in film and television — she won praise again in the searing 1989 television movie “Small Sacrifices” — but throughout, Ms. Fawcett tended to attract more attention for her looks and personal life than for her professional accomplishments. Her 18-year relationship with the actor Ryan O’Neal, with whom she had a son, kept her on the gossip pages long after her television work had become sporadic. This month, interviewed by Barbara Walters on the ABC program “20/20,” Mr. O’Neal said he had asked Ms. Fawcett to marry her and that she had said yes.

In 1997 Ms. Fawcett negated much of the respect she had earned as an actress when, during an appearance on “Late Show With David Letterman,” she promoted a bizarre body-painting Playboy video and appeared ditsy to the point of incoherence.

But later that year she appeared in the acclaimed independent film “The Apostle” as Robert Duvall’s long-suffering wife, and her critical star rose again — only to be dimmed by publicity about a court case involving a former companion, the director James Orr. Mr. Orr was convicted of assaulting Ms. Fawcett and sentenced to three years’ probation.

Ms. Fawcett is survived by her father, James, and her son, Redmond James Fawcett O’Neal.

Though her career was volatile, Ms. Fawcett’s fame never diminished after “Charlie’s Angels.” She tried to capitalize on her celebrity with the 2005 reality series “Chasing Farrah,” but it was a critical and ratings flop. Writing in Medialife magazine, Ed Robertson described the series and its star as “a living example of a talented actress whose career has been turned into a parody by poor decisions.”

Ms. Fawcett herself described her career succinctly. “I became famous,” she said in her 1986 Times interview, “almost before I had a craft.”  – NYT

When you’re up there with The Dark Knight, you’re way up there.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen grossed an estimated $16 million in midnight screenings early today. The not-unexpected monster take, which does not include business from 3 a.m. screenings that were added to meet demand, is the third-biggest after only Star Wars—Episode III: Revenge of the Sith ($16.5 million) and The Dark Knight ($18.5 million).

“I think it’s definitely sets the precedent that we are looking at a giant blockbuster,” box-office analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations said today.

If Revenge of the Fallen can come up with another $28.2 million today, it’ll tie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as the all-time biggest Wednesday opener. And if it manages another $51.2 million, it’ll match Hollywood’s all-time biggest single-day gross, pulling even with—wait for it—The Dark Knight.