Things are not looking great for theTransformersfranchise at the box office. At least not domestically.Transformers: The Last Knighthas just arrived in theaters and, unfortunately for Paramount, the results are not awesome so far.Transformers 5has actually managed to put up the lowest first day ever at the box office for the franchise, which doesn’t necessarily bode well for the studio’s lofty plans moving forward.
According toDeadline,Transformers: The Last Knightpulled in just $15.65 million, including $5.5 million from Wednesday night previews. That isn’t just afranchise low, it is less than half of what the second-worstTransformersmovie pulled in, which was 2007’s originalTransformersmovie with $36.6 million. The other threeTransformersmovies all pulled in significantly more on their opening day, with 2009’sTransformers: Revenge of the Fallennabbing a series-best $62 million, 2011’sTransformers: Dark of the Moonbringing in a still huge $43.2 million and 2014’sTransformers: Age of Extinctionmanaging a comparable $41.8 million.
Interest in the U.S. has been falling off for theTransformersmovies for a while now, but this drop off forTransformers: The Last Knightstill seems somewhat shocking. Typically, one might look to poor reviews and blame them for such bad numbers, butTransformersis a bit of an interesting case. The franchise has never done particularly well with critics (every movie is currently Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes), but that hasn’t kept the movies from making bank at the box office. So, looking at the abysmal 16 percent approval rating from critics may be partially to blame for the decline, though, considering thehistory of the Transformers moviesand financial success, despite critics hating them, that doesn’t seem like the main reason. One would probably point to general fatigue with the franchise at this point, and that could be problematic.
Right now Paramount has some huge plans for the future of theTransformers franchise. They are getting ready to go into production on aBumblebeespin-off movie that will take place in the 80s, and they have already confirmedTransformers 6will come out in 2019.Michael Baysaid not that long ago that, thanks to a writer’s room that was assembled by Paramount in 2015, they have 14 potentialTransformersmovies mapped out. Should this trend continue, those plans may never see the light of day. Or we could be seeing a total reboot.
However, there is the foreign box office to consider, which has become increasingly more important to movies likeTransformers: The Last Knightin recent years. The firstTransformersmade a total of $709.7 million worldwide, with $319.2, or 45 percent of the total gross, coming from domestic audiences. Looking atTransformers: Age of Extinction, which wound up being the top grossing movie of 2014 worldwide, only 22.2 percent, or $245.4 million of the $1.1 billion total box office was domestic. Paramount is going to be relying even more heavily on foreign markets this time around.Transformers: The Last Knightis expected to make somewhere in the neighborhood of $65 million total this weekend, and that is definitely not what we’ve come to expect from Optimus Prime and the gang.
