Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

[Undead Scottsman]

The issue with the film industry is the result of (what else?) corporations being locked into a exponential growth mindset, which means Studios have become incredibly risk adverse, so now everything needs to be a big franchise that can be monetized for decades. Original films not based on an existing property are few and far between, especially when it comes to what brings in the money, which just reinforces what the studios decide to make. (Even if an original film succeeds, like say Knives Out, it instantly gets put onto the sequel train) For instance, the top ten for 2023, according to wikipedia, currently sits at:

1. Super Mario Bros - Based on one of the world's most recognizable videogames
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Third movie in a series that's part of the gigantic MCU, which are based on comics
3. Fast X - 11th movie in a series that's been running for over two decades
4. Full River Red - Hey, an original film! I think, I dunno, it's from China.
5. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Sequel to a film based on comics
6. The Wandering Earth 2 - Sequel to another Chinese movie
7. The Little Mermaid - Live action remake of an animated movie based on a book
8. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - Third movie in a series that's part of the gigantic MCU, which are based on comics.. whoa deja vu!
9. John Wick: Chapter 4 - Fourth movie in the series which has only been around FOR LESS THAN A DECADE.
10. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts - Sequel to a movie from 2018, based on some obscure '80s toyline, I don't know, what do I look like? A guy who plays with toys?

So of the ten highest grossing movies, 7 of them are sequels, two more are based on existing franchises, and only one is based on an original idea. These companies can't just be profitable, they have to be as profitable as possible, and banking on something with established credibility rather than trying something new is always going to look more profitable. So they make repetitive and derivative stuff, because they know that's what works, which becomes the stuff that sells, which just reinforces that's what they make.

The pandemic really couldn't have hit at a worse time, either. It showed people that it was okay to miss these big bloated franchise epics when they come out. They're not that important to their lives. Basically gave everyone a big excuse to not catch them until streaming, or maybe not even catch them at all.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Some new concept art has been unleashed. In addition to some various takes on Unicron, some stuff that stood out to me:

In one version, it seemed like the they might have used the remnants of the Maximal ship to try and revive Bumblebee in a CR chamber.

Concept art of “off road Optimus Prime” robot mode, and off road variation of Wheeljack’s van mode are seen. Plus preliminary looks at Nightbird, Battletrap (with a Bernie Mac nod?), and some different deco options for Mirage.

More art of Transit, who was ultimately cut.

Concept art of Rhinox and Cheetor, depicting proposed battle masks and some alternate face designs for Cheetor.

An Unused Terrorcon concept named “Bloodhound”. A red and black robot who transforms into a muscle car.

Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts Concept Art & Other Material – Round Up #02

Several artists who have worked in the Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts creative process have started to share some interesting concept art and previous material of the movie. We have collected some of them for you to check them our in just one place. This time we have very nice material...

news.tfw2005.com

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

ROTB dogtags?

Amazon.co.jp: トランスフォーマー ビースト覚醒 アクリルコレクション 全6種セット ガチャガチャ : Toys & Games

Amazon.co.jp: トランスフォーマー ビースト覚醒 アクリルコレクション 全6種セット ガチャガチャ : Toys & Games

www.amazon.co.jp

 

[unluckiness]

So of the ten highest grossing movies, 7 of them are sequels, two more are based on existing franchises, and only one is based on an original idea. These companies can't just be profitable, they have to be as profitable as possible, and banking on something with established credibility rather than trying something new is always going to look more profitable. So they make repetitive and derivative stuff, because they know that's what works, which becomes the stuff that sells, which just reinforces that's what they make.

While I think this is part of the problem, I think most of it is that budgets are simply out of control. They need to bring back low and mid budget movies instead of trying to make each film a blockbuster. $200 million for every single movie is just not sustainable for a wide variety of reasons.

 

[Axaday]

The Unicron scenes played with the 1986 theme, but I don't think I heard all 5 notes together.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

 

[Superomegaprime]

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For some reason, I got this thought, a third party company might take that desgin and do it better, its kind of intersting and different to other combined forms for OP

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Some rumors to stew and speculate on...

Theory: ROTB mainline cancelled in US

I've seen many Bumblebees at my local walmart, and my area usually has horrible distribution The Mainline?

www.tfw2005.com

According to Silver Optimus (who generally doesn't spout nonsense), is claiming the reason Core Deluxe hasn't appeared in the US (aside from the Target multipacks) is because Hasbro is planning on releasing a "Studio Series for kids" line next year, which will feature repacks of these items. Which actually makes a degree of sense with how Hasbro's been handling the brand, as a whole.
With another Transformers film due next fall, Hasbro might have figured it would be simpler to launch a full line than start/stopping a couple.

My first thought was: If Hasbro is looking at making Core a recurrent product style, it PROBABLY portends a price increase on Studio Series. Given how Core Deluxe and Voyager figures have largely turned out (inaccurate, lacking in deco, but simpler and more "fun") I'm game for such an initiative.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

RotB getting delayed screwed hasbro over a bit, as they suddenly had an additional line of Transformers in stores for 2023. I wonder if they're not spacing out RotB a bit to take away some of the saturation. Sort of half now, half later kind of thing.

 

[Superomegaprime]

RotB getting delayed screwed hasbro over a bit, as they suddenly had an additional line of Transformers in stores for 2023. I wonder if they're not spacing out RotB a bit to take away some of the saturation. Sort of half now, half later kind of thing.

You got to remember that the movie was delayed by a year thus it upset some of their plans, the movie its self seems to be just holding onto the number 5 spot on the movie charts as other films come and go, such as the surprise hit Sound of Freedom, which just toppled Indi 5 from the top of the chart but then this summer has been a bit crowded and we are seeing a bunch of turds appearing and falling flat on their faces, mostly anything related to Disney, so ROTB is not a mega hit but it seems to be holding its own, for now, thou I think it will likely do well on Digital, but we'll see!

 

[CoffeeHorse]

It's worth noting that ROTB didn't open in as many theaters as some of this summer's other releases, and it's still holding its own. For comparison, ROTB opened in 3,678 theaters. It's down to 2,852. The Little Mermaid opened in 4,320 theaters and is down to 2,430. The Flash opened in 4,234 theaters and is down to 2,718. So of those three ROTB is currently playing in the most theaters despite opening in the fewest.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

It's worth noting that ROTB didn't open in as many theaters as some of this summer's other releases, and it's still holding its own. For comparison, ROTB opened in 3,678 theaters. It's down to 2,852. The Little Mermaid opened in 4,320 theaters and is down to 2,430. The Flash opened in 4,234 theaters and is down to 2,718. So of those three ROTB is currently playing in the most theaters despite opening in the fewest.

...The simple truth is that Rise of the Beasts is a box-office disappointment, especially when considering the cost of its production. Rise of the Beasts has struggled to generate double the revenue of its announced budget of $195 million, raking in just under $380 million during the first four weeks of its worldwide theatrical release. There are a few more weeks before the highly-anticipated slate of July blockbusters will push Rise of the Beasts out of the theatrical circuit, but it's unlikely that the movie will surmount more than $450 million at the global box office before then...

(Source: - https://screenrant.com/transformers-rise-beasts-box-office-franchise-future/ )

 

[CoffeeHorse]

It may not have gotten the numbers Paramount wanted but the feedback they'll be getting from theater owners isn't going to be "Please don't send us another one of these." It's performed well in the theaters it did get. It just didn't get enough, because the brand was still damaged.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

It may not have gotten the numbers Paramount wanted but the feedback they'll be getting from theater owners isn't going to be "Please don't send us another one of these." It's performed well in the theaters it did get. It just didn't get enough, because the brand was still damaged.

Comparing it to Bumblebee, Rise of the Beasts is doing better, albeit, probably not as much as the extra $50 million might have warranted. Bumblebee, after 5 weekends (including multiple long weekends) didn’t even break $100 million. And that was a Christmas release pre-pandemic. Rise of the Beasts, after 5 weekends, has already exceeded Bumblebee’s domestic run, and against some damned solid competition (Ironically, Bumblebee’s competition also included Spiderverse and a DC movie!). It has even out performed franchise downer, The Last Knight!

And, maybe more importantly, the Transformers franchise as a HUGE back end that people like the writer at Screenrant and fans seem to forget. The movies STILL get a lot of play on TV and streaming services. The Bumblebee toy line did well enough that Hasbro basically adopted him to headline the Buzzworthy Target initiative and Cyberverse was adapted to more prominently feature him. Paramount still gets a slice of sales from anything sporting their logos or film characters designs, be it Beast Changers or Studio Series. And my observation is that sales ain’t been terrible.
Even if Rise of the Beasts goes to home viewing next week, you’re still looking at a few weeks of a premium rental and digital sales, I assume, Paramount gets a bigger slice from than theaters.


The article from Screenrant also ruffles my feathers by going back to “how great Bay was”. I don’t know where this revisionism is coming from, but while Michael Bay brought a lot of “energy”, his style is also a huge component as to why the franchise became the joke it did. It’s also worth remembering that, for all he did right, the franchise WAS declining under his stewardship, leading to the whole damn reason we got Bumblebee, which ignored a LOT of the prior continuity.
The film franchise was collapsing, and it wasn’t until Travis Knight made Bumblebee that things stabilized. For all the faults leveled against Rise of the Beasts, it still boasts one of the better critical responses of the franchise (behind TF1 and Bumblebee)

And, again, it’s worth remembering a LOT of high profile tent poles have had issues this summer, many with as big or bigger budgets. Fast X, The Flash, Indiana Jones, Elemental, all MAJOR film releases that have underperformed. If anything, Transformers is sustaining a solid run, being well on its way to beating ALL those mentioned films in terms of per film domestic box office gross.

(Sidebar: Also worth noting is that Box Office Mojo is tracking 40 films in release right now. Less than HALF the number in release in 2019. Theaters are still recovering, and I know at my local options, they are still not having as many showings as they did pre-pandemic)

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

A favourite Japanese animation of mine, called "Pui Pui Molcar" and Transformers ROTB is finally together!

I think this show is available at Netflix Japan and at YouTube.

https://youtube.com/@molcar_anime

It's rather funny and cute.

For those unfamiliar, the Japanese word for guinea pig is "molmot", and the cute sound that these make is "pui", so "Pui Pui Mol(mot) car".

 

[unluckiness]

I kind of want this to do good since the movie is decent but at the same time, I also don't want to reward the overexuberant and rather shallow memberberry usage.

 

[MrBlud]

I’ll take those berries over dogs humping, Devastator’s balls, and those lovely “why statutory rape isn’t actually statutory rape” cards…

 

[unluckiness]

Not a fan of any of those but they're ultimately disposable scenes with no bearing on the story or future plotlines. Now they have to deal with the avoidable "future and past" nonsense and wasted Unicron as a disposable end-of-the-world skybeam thing on top of making him look like a chump. It's not an either-or proposition.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

You know that Mass Effect 2 DLC where the relay the Reapers were going to use to get into the galaxy is destroyed, but it's just a delaying tactic becuase the Reapers can just get back to the galaxy on their own, but it's just slower?

That's basically what happened with Unicron. His "appear instantly" move got stopped but he can still, you know, just fly to Earth the slow way.

 

[unluckiness]

Yeah they could write around it but the thing is, Unicron in this film could have been one of the many generic world-ending artifacts and the script wouldn’t be much different. Just brings baggage and complicates potential future movies for not much payoff.