Transformers: One - New Animated Prequel coming September 20th, 2024 - New Toy Official Images!

[Steevy Maximus]

Wait what?

Just for clarification for those that don't follow that sort of stuff and think we're all just "fan-ing" about the movie failing:

Last weekend, the second for TFOne, it was beaten out by the third weekend of Beatlejuice 2, by a not insignificant margin. To date, TFOne has brought in just $40 million domestically. Compared to its closest equivalent release (TMNT: Mutant Mayhem), Transformers is trailing by over $30 million at the same stage of release. The weekend to weekend drop was over 60%.
That is a DISASTROUS second week to week drop, typically only seen in major disappointments or bombs.

 

[Donocropolis]

Yeah, I don't think the bad numbers are the result of anything that TF: One did WRONG, just that a lot of families go to the movies only a couple of times a year now. I think it'll probably do great on streaming, but I don't know how strongly the powers-that-be think of that.

Honestly, if they could keep writing/acting quality the same, I would be ok with straight-to-streaming sequels if that's where people are going to see them.

 

[lastmaximal]

That one wacky trailer pushed the wrong buttons, and the lack of other trailers highlighting different tonal and conceptual aspects of the movie (granted, it's also fairly short so they may have just not had as much they could give away) didn't help.

But I'll never understand the late theatrical window. Like, make it a holiday release if you want, but September is not the liveliest time of the year for the kind of success this is hoped to be.

It's very frustrating that this perfectly cromulent movie is hit with the perfect storm of apathetic moviegoers and not even courting said apathetic moviegoers well.

I hope it does good numbers on streaming, which will also likely allow it to find its audience better.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Yeah, I don't think the bad numbers are the result of anything that TF: One did WRONG, just that a lot of families go to the movies only a couple of times a year now. I think it'll probably do great on streaming, but I don't know how strongly the powers-that-be think of that.

Honestly, if they could keep writing/acting quality the same, I would be ok with straight-to-streaming sequels if that's where people are going to see them.

The linked articles did raise a few vaild factors, some I do agree with:
-"Hard scifi" animated films have never done particularly well at theaters, going back to the utter masterpiece of Iron Giant. Wall-E is an exception, but did so on the back of a strong central character design and the high prestige of the Pixar brand, at the time. Even The Wild Robot only did "moderately" better than TFOne, despite being a FAR more "family friendly" concept.
-As a brand, I think it can be fair to call Transformers "over-exposed". Since 2007, we've had eight feature films and have NEVER gone without a cartoon for more than a few months. Transformers, particularly ANIMATED content, is so readily available it's hard to get excited about going out to a theater to see more of it. Especially when shows like Prime and Earthspark have animation and design work DAMN close to what you can get in theaters. It's worth noting that TMNT went "dead" at mass market for almost 3 years after the failure of Rise. I'd argue it might do the brand some good to take a couple years "off" and regroup and refocus.

That said, I think the biggest failing for TFOne was the release date. In the continued comparison I've made with TMNT Mutant Mayhem, TMNT was released in August against largely "big summer leftovers". This past August? There was a dearth of competitive new releases. Harold and the Purple Crayon didn't even blip the radar, while Borderlands was a high profile bomb out the gate. The big July films would have been outside of their peak windows and Transformers could have been a viable "all ages action" option.
Had the film released mid-August, I think it would have done FAR better, simply due to lack of competition. While Beatlejuice has done FAR better than expected (I'm calling a halo effect of the success of Wednesday being a factor), the lackluster showing from The Wild Robot shows an overall softness in the business than I don't think any movie might have overcome.

 

[lastmaximal]

Sorry for being wildly off topic, but MAN I miss Rise of the TMNT. That really turned into something so, so different from what it felt like when it was announced, and carved out a hilarious spot of its own in franchise history. I'm thrilled that it didn't bother actually following in the footsteps of the 2012 series, which I loved.

More on topic, I agree that Transformers is pretty overexposed, even just theatrically. If there had been a longer hiatus before Bumblebee, that would have helped a fair bit, I think. I also appreciated the delay for RotB, although "worth the wait" is not how I would have described it.

And yet (in the wake of losing James Earl Jones and so many others) I can't help but want them to get their jive together and make a good live-action movie with Peter Cullen while we have him, sooner rather than later. Let's have a live-action movie where OP is neither a raging psycho not a jerk, but the dad we've all come to see him as. A protective, encouraging, inspiring (and not in the "give him a generic monologue" way) and wholesome figure, rather than the Edgelord 3000 they've turned him into over the first decade of the movies. Let the man act and engage, rather than only shifting between screaming and ominously intoning the whole movie.

 

[Sabrblade]

And yet (in the wake of losing James Earl Jones and so many others) I can't help but want them to get their jive together and make a good live-action movie with Peter Cullen while we have him, sooner rather than later. Let's have a live-action movie where OP is neither a raging psycho not a jerk, but the dad we've all come to see him as. A protective, encouraging, inspiring (and not in the "give him a generic monologue" way) and wholesome figure, rather than the Edgelord 3000 they've turned him into over the first decade of the movies. Let the man act and engage, rather than only shifting between screaming and ominously intoning the whole movie.

In other words (those of Peter's late brother Larry), let Peter's Optimus "be strong enough to be gentle."

 

[lastmaximal]

Yes, exactly. We finally have a generation that is mainstreaming appreciation of "good dad" energy as part of pushing back against toxic masculinity, and a generation that grew up with Optimus Prime as a surrogate dad. Time to give them all an Optimus they can be proud of.

Larry's words have always been such a simply elegant summation. In typing the post above I almost said "non-bumbling but equally sincere and uplifting and wholesome Phil Dunphy", but thought better of it.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

For me, the reason I'm not interested in watching this at the cinema:

- The main trailer and aesthetic seemed aimed at very young kids, giving me the impression it was a "made-for-tv" animated film for Cyberverse or something like that (with the "humour" of the SMB film, or minions, etc).

- No original TF G1 voice actors.

- The toys have seemed underwhelming (lacking the detail, size and paint compared to other SS/Legacy figures) and more aimed at very young children. The only one that got my interest was the Takara Tomy Optimus, but again, that was too expensive IMO for what it was.

- In Japan, from my limited observations, I've only seen some of the toys for sale at Amazon Japan but not in any physical shops. Also, apart from the recent TF expo in Japan, I haven't seen any physical adverts on trains, inside trains, on billboards, nor promotional merch, such as "TV Magazine/Kun" mooks, Kabaya kits, trading cards w/gum in convenience stores, McDonalds "Happy Seto" toys, etc. Nothing. This might be due to the film possibly not being released yet in Japan (or if it's out already, then that's even worse).

For me, the terrible/non-existent marketing, coupled with the poor toy designs/output suggests that Hasbro and the film company weren't confident in this film and didn't really give it 100% of their time or effort. I got the same impression for ROTB too in that I felt that everyone concerned just wanted to "get it over with".

I'll just wait for this to come out online and stream it and/or buy any exclusive Japanese TFs (if they're ever released) such as clear versions, etc and/or wait for some OSKOs of Megatron and Optimus maybe.

 

[Deathy G1]

It's sad that Paramount isn't likely to try anything like One again. I half expect the franchise to go into hibernation after TF vs GI Joe (if that doesn't end up in Development Hell thanks to One's performance).

 

[CoffeeHorse]

It finally crossed $40 million domestic yesterday. Painfully slow.

The per theater numbers are especially sad, because that was ROTB's bright spot. If that film earned any goodwill with theater owners, it's gone.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Yesterday's per theater number was only $154. It took over 40 days for ROTB to sink that low.

 

[Donocropolis]

Yesterday's per theater number was only $154. It took over 40 days for ROTB to sink that low.

Which really is a shame, because One is the much better movie. Unfortunately, these numbers are going to send the executives the exact wrong message.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

If streaming and DVDs turn it around maybe there's still hope that they'll learn the right lessons.

 

[NovaSaber]

"Streaming and DVDs are more important than box office" is a lesson they should have already learned years ago.

 

[Superomegaprime]

"Streaming and DVDs are more important than box office" is a lesson they should have already learned years ago.

They are VERY slow learners, if they were actually smart, the problems with a lot of the mainstream entertainment in the western world, wouldn't of happened and things would be much better off, but a lot of the major studios simply blew themselves up to try and beat Netflix and failed, the best example of that is Disney, their Disney plus service is crumbling and the biggest thing on there, is a cartoon dog, named Bluey, so its highly unlikely any of the executives have learned a dammed thing from these failures and sucesses so it might be best if Transformers, simply takes a break from the big screen and focus more on the small screen as long form story telling works best, when in the right hands as Hollywood, would rather promote a so called human star over a bunch of CGI robots, thus the human characters become rather insufferable at times when people would rather see the robots!

 

[CoffeeHorse]

"Streaming and DVDs are more important than box office" is a lesson they should have already learned years ago.

Deep down I'm sure they know it's true. They just don't want it to be true.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

Someone pointed this out to me. (Well, they pointed something else out but it lead me to this)

Out of the top grossing weekends for movies released in September, all time, Transformers One is #36.

Out of the top grossing animated weekends for movies released in September, Transformers One is like #7. (It might be #8 or #9 if I missed a flick, they don't say which ones are animated)

Which, uh, tells me that you shouldn't release animated flicks in September!

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Like I said, kids don't have weekends. They have homework. And they'd like to spend both mornings recovering from five days of waking up at too early o'clock. It only leaves so much time left to do anything.

Yeah, a movie typically doesn't take up much of that time, in theory. But there's not as many theaters as there used to be. The nearest one might be a good drive away. Plus you know the movie doesn't start even remotely close to the advertised time, and theaters are just allowed to do that. And some kids have that mother who needs to get to the theater about 30 minutes ahead of time just in case. Grumble grumble...

Going to see a movie ends up taking half the day. Kids need a really good reason to give up that time. And this film's marketing did not give that reason.

 

[Donocropolis]

And some kids have that mother who needs to get to the theater about 30 minutes ahead of time just in case. Grumble grumble...

Oh my goodness, when I was wee lad, we would always be at the theater and in our seats for what felt like an hour before anyone else even came in. I'm sure it wasn't ACTUALLY that long, because they don't usually have that much time between showings, but I know we were definitely unreasonably early for movies. No idea why my mom thought we needed to get there that soon.

 

[ZacWilliam1]

My mom got us to one movie late as a child. Benji the Hunted. By the time me my siblings and I think a friend or two got there the movie was well started and the dog was already lost in the woods and we had no idea what was going on.

It was so deeply bothering to me as a kid that like 40 years later I still credit that with trying to be at the theater at least 45 minutes before a film starts. An hour if I can help it.


-ZacWilliam, Like why was the dog in the woods? Who was hunting him? Why?