Since its release, Transformers One has struggled to meet its predicted box office takings, leading many to declare the movie to a financial flop. Released on 20th September 2024, it had an opening weekend total of just under $25 million and under $10 million the following week. So do the detractors have a point?
An Expensive Outing
There have been mixed reports regarding the cost of the movie, but these have ranged putting the budget at somewhere between $75 and $147 million. While this is considerable less than the live action films, it does place a substantial amount of pressure on the film to deliver at the box office. Certainly animated movies can be profitable as both Disney and Pixar movies have shown repeatedly, but Transformers hasn’t been so lucky.
The franchise has only had one cinematic outing before in animated form and despite being loved by the fans, the 1986 movie was a commercial disaster. But why haven’t audiences taken to Transformers One?
The Numbers Don’t Add Up
The current figures are somewhat misleading and don’t reveal the true picture when it comes to Transformers One. Right now, the bulk of the box office takings are from the US, Canada and Australia (not exactly the largest contributor towards movie revenue). Looking at the box office figure globally, at the time of writing the movie hasn’t been released in the UK, Europe or China (traditionally one of the stronger markets for Transformers films) so the real picture of its box office success won’t be known for some time.
Changing Habits
Whether we like to admit it or not, a lot of people have changed the way they watch movies as well. It’s getting increasingly expensive to go to the cinema to watch a film – not just the cost of admission, but food, drink, travel, parking and everything else associated with it. While many will argue that you can’t beat the experience of watching a film in the cinema, as the world continues to face increasingly tough times economically going to the movies is still a luxury for a lot of people.
It’s much easier and significantly cheaper to wait for a blu ray release or just rent or buy the digital release instead. To be honest, streaming services haven’t helped either. I can remember back in the VHS era when it took a year before films hit a rental release and another year after that before you could buy a movie. Films took a few years before getting a TV broadcast so cinema drew huge audiences. But now, most movies make it to streaming services within months of their cinematic releases, taking the incentive away almost completely from making the trip to the cinema.
The Transformers Market
Ignoring all of the associated merchandise that floods the market, the Transformers franchise caters for five key audiences. The obvious main line are the toys which started things off. Within this are ranges aimed at the general market, younger fans and adult collectors. Comics – again with the mainstream range plus some introductory titles aimed at a younger audience. Video games are geared more towards an adult market with the casual fans targetted through the mobile sector.
Then we have the animated shows. Since the beginning the main driver for these has been to advertise and sell toys. Truthfully, good storytelling has been a bonus and we’ve been pretty fortunate in that department. Ultimately, although there have been some great episodes that we’ve all loved as adults, these are intended for a younger market to persuade them to want more toys, nothing more.
Finally are the movies. Whether we like it or not, the live action movies have never been intended for the die-hard fans, but instead meant to be action blockbuster movies designed to appeal to the general population. If they fit in with what we all know as Transformers and draw in the Transformers fan base then that was going to be a bonus, but these movies were never meant for us.
Where Does Transformers One Fit In?
Transformers One is an unusual one in all of this. We’ve seen how successful Transformers can be as a movie – regardless of what you may think of the live action films, they’ve certainly been profitable. But they’ve all offered something new to the audience. In the case of Transformers One, no matter how good the story may be right from the start it has been fighting to win audiences on two fronts.
The first, and most obvious one, is the early impression people had of the film from the first trailer that was released. It gave the impression that it was a comedic buddy movie and not an epic action film. The trailer certain drew attention to the film, but for all the wrong reasons and would no doubt have put many people off – to the point that many wouldn’t have even been interested in watching further trailers, let alone paying to see the full film.
More Of The Same?
But one point that many seem to ignore is the fact that Transformers One is an animated film. Yes, as I’ve said before, animated movies can do incredibly well at the box office but this is Transformers we are talking about. We have had 40 years of animated Transformers content on television and many casual cinemagoers will regard this as being nothing more than an extended television episode and no doubt the exact same thing happened back in 1986.
As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I believe exactly the same would happen now if a new Star Trek movie were released. With so much new material produced since the last live action movie a movie just wouldn’t feel special in the way the previous films did. Fans took to the early Trek movies as there was no other way to see the original Star Trek cast in action, but as soon as we saw multiple shows in production at the same time, interest in the movies dropped. As they say, too much of a good thing…
And in the case of Transformers One, apart from big stars headlining the voice cast, it’s hard to justify to the casual audience what makes this a special “event” when there’s a Transformers show currently on TV, and other live action movies also telling their own variation on the same origin story. Had there been no animated shows for several years, things may have been different but as long as there are toys to sell we know this won’t happen.
Outlook
We know that it’s still early days for the movie and international figures will give it a massive boost. And that’s before we get to home video sales, digital rental and purchases, and income from streaming services and toy sales so there’s no denying the film will turn a profit. The only question is whether it will make enough of a profit to warrant a sequel. I’m sure that many of those currently doubting the film (including those who have avoided it because of the first trailer) will support a follow-up if one is made but we just need to hope that it gets that far.
Facebook Comments