Bumblebee as a reboot: betting big on the future of the franchise

We must first get one thing out of the way: it was recently announced by Hasbro that “Bumblebee” would not be a prequel to the Bay movies, but rather a reboot of the franchise; you can read more about it on our dedicated news piece here. This very article, however, sparked a debate about past films by Michael Bay, how releasing “Bumblebee” during the holiday season was sportsbetting, and more.

I’ll embed the post below so you can read the replies from the community:

As you can see, people are very adamant about their love for the Transfomers films, even if they’re panned by critics. One can tell that, despite not being well-received by the film buffs, numbers don’t lie: even the “least” successful Bayverse Transformers film (The Last Knight) brought in three times its over $200-million budget. That’s a number you can take to high roller casinos every day of the week.

Why, then, has Hasbro decided to make the “Bumblebee” film a reboot, when it performed much less successfully at the box office? After all, it “only” doubled its budget at the box office, a much lower return on investment than films like “Dark of the Moon” which, at 1.12 billion dollars at the box office, made back its budget six-fold.

This is mere speculation, but I think they saw the potential. They scheduled the release of “Bumblebee” at a terribly crowded time during the holiday season, and instead of making the right move (like Alitta: Battle Angel did) and move it to sometime this year, they let it basically die on arrival.

But fans loved it. Despite the busy schedule, over $400 million isn’t something to sniff at. And really, fans of the franchise did express their love for it. So did the critics: It sits at a very healthy 93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, overcoming the 15% fresh rating of the previous entry, “The Last Knight”, which was an all-time low for the franchise.

Yes, Hasbro is the world’s biggest toy maker. But I think they care about their intellectual property, too. And they just didn’t like where things were headed under the supervision of Michael Bay, apparently, despite box office numbers.

What does the future hold, then? It’s hard to tell. I think it’s bold to leave the Transformers Bayverse behind, but I’m hopeful that this new reboot will grow even bigger than ever. After all, a house stands stronger and taller for longer with a good foundation. And despite whether you liked or disliked the Bay films, I think we can all agree that “Bumblebee” is as good a place as any to restart and reboot something like Transformers. 

PS: Let’s not forget that they have also agreed to do a new animated series following the War for Cybertron storyline with one of the most successful and beloved animation studios in the world. A good time to be a fan of Transformers, I’d say!

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About Marcos Codas 44 Articles
Lover of portable gaming and horror cinema. Indie filmmaker and game developer. Multimedia producer. Born in Paraguay, raised in Canada. Huge fan of "The Blair Witch Project", and "Sonic 3D Blast". Deputy head at Vita Player and its parent organization, Infinite Frontiers. Like what I do? Donate a coffee: https://www.paypal.me/marcoscodas