Transformers One Continues a Worrying 7-Year Box Office Trend for the Franchise

Transformers Onethe underwhelming commercial performance continues the Transformers the franchise’s gradual decline at the box office after seven years of financial disappointments. Transformers One marks the first time that an animation Transformers the film has been released theatrically since the inaugural adaptation of the series, The Transformers: The Moviewas released in 1986. The new animated film is one of several projects coming out of the writers’ room that Paramount put together with the goal of transforming Transformers in a Marvel-style cinematic universe, but that effort has yet to achieve Marvel-sized box office success.

With Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley at the helm and a star-studded voice cast including Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Laurence Fishburne, Transformers One he seemed to have everything going for him. It was a throwback to the old-school 80s cartoon and the franchise’s original sci-fi approach. With mostly positive reviews from critics and a relatively modest budget, it should have been a success. But it turned out to be the latest in a long series of box office disappointments for the Transformers film franchise.

Transformers One is the fourth consecutive Transformers film to decline at the box office

Since Transformers: Age Of Extinction, each new film has earned less than the last

The poor box office performance of Transformers One continues a disappointing trend in Transformers franchise that has been in the making for seven years. Since then Transformers: Age of Extinctioneach successive Transformers film grossed less than the previous one (via The Numbers). Original by Michael Bay Transformers The 2007 film kicked off the franchise on solid ground with worldwide grosses of $708,272,592. Its first sequel, 2009 Revenge of the fallendespite receiving much worse reviews, it grossed even more with a global haul of US$836,519,699, which set the series up for a bright future.

In 2011, the franchise broke the billion-dollar barrier with what is still its highest-grossing entry. Transformers: Dark of the Moonwhich raised US$1,123,794,079. The Next, 2014 Age of Extinctionit suffered a slight drop, but still surpassed the one billion dollar threshold. It grossed around US$19 million less than its predecessor, totaling US$1,104,054,072 worldwide. The franchise really started to go downhill with its next installment, 2017 The Last Knightwhich raised $602,893,340. It still managed to profit from its $217 million production budget, but it was a drop of almost 50% compared to the previous film’s numbers.

After the poor performance of The Last KnightParamount began to move away from the Bay era Transformers and hoped to bring the franchise back to its roots with the light-hearted ’80s-set spin-off Bee in 2018. But despite receiving better reviews than any previous Transformers film – with many critics considering it the first live-action film Transformers movie that was actually a genuinely good movie – Bee still raised less than The Last Knightwith a global total of US$464,731,819. It had a significantly smaller budget at $102 million, but was still a far cry from the franchise’s blockbuster glory days.

After that, Paramount returned to the sprawling, chaotic, Bay-style world where the world is at stake. Transformers movies with 2023 Rise of the Beastswhich received mixed reviews. Rise of the Beasts only raised $439,241,749, which wasn’t a huge drop from Beebut it was still considered a disappointment – especially considering cost almost twice as much Bee producewith a budget of US$195 million. A year later, Paramount released Transformers Onewhich only raised $127,824,330making it the lowest grossing Transformers film since the original 1986 animation, which grossed a paltry $5,849,647.

Why the Transformers Movies Have Struggled at the Box Office

There are a few reasons for this: franchise fatigue, negative reviews, fierce competition

There are some reasons why Transformers the franchise has struggled at the box office in recent films. The franchise fatigue excuse is often used when Marvel films underperform at the box office, but hits like Deadpool and Wolverine and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 have consistently proven this to be wrong. In case of Transformers, franchise fatigue may actually be the case. Audiences had fun with the first films, but when The Last Knight came up with the same old routine, they realized they were fed up with these shape-shifting cyborgs.

There’s a wide range of characters and genres explored in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – one film might be a semi-grounded heist movie, the next might be a space adventure – but there are plenty of ways to spin alien robots that transform into cars. THE Transformers films have never received positive reviewsbut that didn’t stop people from attending Revenge of the fallen or Darkness of the Moon. It may be that, in recent years, the market has become absurdly saturatedso that the public has many more options to choose from.

Transformers One was always unlikely to match the live-action films at the box office

There’s a common misconception that animation is just for kids

While its underwhelming gross of $127 million is certainly a surprise given that it’s an animated film, Transformers One it was always expected to gross less than its live-action counterparts. There’s a common misconception that animation is only for children, so many adult viewers with disposable income tend to avoid it in theaters (unless they have children to entertain). The marketing seemed to lean into this expectation, as the trailers were specifically aimed at younger viewers.then it would never measure up to the live-action films at the box office.

Other animated films were successful this year – Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 They are two of the highest-grossing films of 2024 — but they came from franchises that have always been aimed at children. The Wild Robotwho overcame Transformers Oneis an adaptation of a popular children’s book series. With Transformers One, the Transformers the franchise was essentially seeking an entirely new audience than before. Even the Spider-Verse The films, which were hailed as masterpieces and cultural landmarks, failed to come close to the worst-rated live-action films Spider-Man films.

What Transformers One’s Box Office Performance Means for the Future

Transformers One probably won’t have a sequel

The box office disappointment of Transformers One probably means there won’t be a sequel. The same thing probably happened as planned Rise of the Beasts sequel after that film also underperformed at the box office. Blue BeetleÁngel Manuel Soto is working on an independent project Transformers film and the GI Joe crossover is definitely happening, so This won’t stop the franchise. But this could cause Paramount to rethink its plans for the series’ future.

Source: The Numbers