Michael Bay's Transformers: Age of Extinction easily romped to victory at the box office on Friday on its way to setting the biggest single day opening of 2014 with $41.6 million.

Paramount Pictures fourth film in the franchise earned $8.75 million during Thursday night previews and is on pace to likely be the first film of the year to hit the $100 million mark on opening weekend, Forbes reports. The film could even reach as high as $112 million if it continues to do really well.

The Mark Wahlberg-starring film is also doing gangbusters overseas, with a record-setting $30 million gross in China. So far the film has earned $52 million at the international box office.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, with little to no competition for the weekend, moviegoers will help the film propel past Transformers: Dark of the Moon's $97.9 million opening weekend any maybe even past the $108 million Revenge of the Fallen grossed.

A couple limited release films did open this weekend, including Keira Knightley's Begin Again, which grossed $43,304 on five screens. The film is projected to earn a strong $140,000 for the weekend.

Dinesh D'Souza's latest documentary-ish feature Imagine the World Without Her also opened along with Chris Evans' Snowpiercer, though numbers haven't been released for either yet.

Sony's 22 Jump Street earned $5 million on Friday and will likely earn $15 million for the weekend, which would be good enough for second place. Rounding out the top three is How to Train Your Dragon 2, which grossed $4.1 million on Friday and is projected to earn $13 million.

image courtesy of Zelig Shaul/ACE/INFphoto.com