Google Spots Blockbuster Summer Movies

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the second movie in the series about robots in disguise, exploded in its debut, earning more than $62 million on its opening day alone.

The film has been out for two and a half weeks and has grossed $339 million domestically and $670 million worldwide. With a production budget of $200 million, the return on this movie is already attractive without factoring DVD sales and television rights. Paramount Pictures, the Viacom(VIA.B Quote) subsidiary that distributes the film, is in for a huge payday.

Predicting which movies will blast off and which will fizzle is difficult, but a free tool from Google(GOOG Quote) offers some potentially lucrative clues. Google Trends allows users to graph how often people search certain words, whether they're movie titles or product names. The results can serve as a gauge of consumer interest. ...