Transformers One Is A Victim Of The Franchise’s Downfall Under Michael Bay

The Transformers franchise has been a long-running staple of the media landscape for some time now, and for good reason. From the series’ beginnings as a Saturday morning cartoon to the huge, 200 million dollar live-action films, Transformers has been a staple in the public consciousness for many years. Despite this huge reach, the latest Transformers film, Transformers One, has been struggling at the box office, even with stellar review scores from both critics and audiences, leaving many to ask why.

A film about Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), two Transformers who eventually become the heroic Optimus Prime and the evil Decepticon Megatron respectively, seemed like it would be ready to be a box office hit. Transformers One telling the origin story of the two most well-known characters from a very well-known franchise making its way to the silver screen seemed like it could be the shot of adrenaline that Transformers needed, but unfortunately, Transformers One, despite the critical reaction, has been falling short of expectations by quite a significant margin.

The Live-Action Transformers Movies Had Diminishing Returns By Michael Bay’s End

After Their Wild Initial Success, Things Went Downhill Quickly

Transformers One’s box office woes are the unfortunate byproduct of the franchise simply running out of steam. After an initial high that grew until the end of the first trilogy, resulting in Transformers: Dark of the Moon‘s $1.12 billion box office run, Transformers quickly lost most of its goodwill, as people believed they had seen everything the franchise had to offer. Age of Extinction made an excellent $1.10 billion, but the subsequent The Last Knight earned a comparatively mild $605 million, a clear sign that people were simply tired of Transformers.

Things only began to get worse for the series, as the following film, Bumblebee, performed worse, albeit on a slightly lighter budget, but soon after, Rise of the Beasts continued this trend, hitting the lowest box office numbers for the franchise. This trend shows just how fatigued audiences have been with Transformers movies, and unfortunately, only one year since Rise of the Beast‘s failure, Transformers One does not seem able to buck that trend.

Transformers One Shows How Much Damage Michael Bay Did To The Franchise

It’s Unclear If Or When The Series Will Recover

Transformers One failing at the box office despite being a good film is a poor sign for the franchise’s future. On a $75 million dollar budget, it had only managed to make around $72 million by the end of its second weekend in theaters, which when factoring in marketing and distrubution costs, is a very poor performance. Transformers One is simply unable to reach a wide enough audience in order to make the money it needs to count as a successful project, and much of that failure can be traced back to how the franchise was treated under Michael Bay.

While the original Transformers movies were successful, critically, their reception was luckluster, with most criticisms aimed at the storytelling and characters. The spectacle and action setpieces were enjoyable, but over the course of those first five films, people began to expect movies that only had big robot action as the draw, and eventually lost interest. This has led to Transformers One being mostly ignored by general audiences, an unfortunate byproduct of the disposable nature with which the previous Transformers films were treated.

Will Transformers One Rebound At The Box Office?

It Has Been Done Many Times Before

Despite the initial very lukewarm reaction, Transformers One could potentially rebound and become a success for the studio. Many movies have come out under similar circumstances, in franchises that seemed tired and out of ideas, while still making a solid amount of money. Movies that would eventually become big hits, like Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Disney’s Elemental, and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish all had a poor box office start, but positive word of mouth drew people to theaters over the course of their theatrical run, enough for each to be considered a success.

In order for a movie to be considered a success, it generally needs to make two to three times it budget back, to account for marketing and distribution costs.

The only question is whether Transformers One is actually capable of turning its luck around and making the money needed to warrant a continuation. If Paramount lets the movie stay in theaters for a while without dumping it on streaming in the hope of getting a few more views, Transformers One‘s excellent reviews and glowing recommendations can lead to more and more people deciding that Transformers One is worth their time, giving it its theatrical second wind. With enough of a comeback, the film could inspire a continuation that brings the Transformers franchise back to its days of box office success.

Source: Box Office Mojo