The Transformers One box office is currently underperforming the estimates which could mean another flop for Chris Hemsworth.
As I said just a few days ago, the flick was hoping to open to $30 million. Earlier estimates and the trades were saying Transformers One could open to the low $30Ms to as high as $50 million.
Well, Transformers One looks to have opened to half that latter number with a $26.3M opening.
Update: Actuals are even less, reported at only $24.6 million, which drops Transformers One to #2 for the weekend behind Beetlejuice 2 in its third weekend at $26M.
It’s also underperforming compared to two animated movies the trades were comparing Transformers One to: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (opened to $28M 3-day), and Trolls Band Together ($30M).
Deadline is blaming the lower-than-estimated opening on Transformers One being geared toward the hardcore fans: “That’s because it’s more boys than fanboys,” states the site. Oh, really?
Why is Transformers One underperforming?
Now I haven’t seen the flick myself and it has an A CinemaScore and a 98% Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter (formerly Audience Score), but I have to question if it’s for the fanboys — at least how they marketed it.
I did watch the first trailer and Transformers One came off as a Disney Pixar version of Transformers. Director Josh Cooley even directed Toy Story 4, so you can’t tell me Paramount wasn’t going for a Toy Story approach to the franchise.
However, then it seemed the closer we got to the release, the marketing switched gears and attempted to make the flick look a lot more serious (guessing because ticket sales were in the gutter).
The original series and the 1986 animated movie that the fanboys grew up with looks to be much more serious than this movie, which also looks to be filled with goofy Marvel-style wannabe jokes.
I also have to question if there is a younger audience that even likes Transformers.
I grew up with them as a kid, and I can tell you for a fact that my 10-year-old self back then would have hated Transformers One (we also grew up with G.I. Joe, Voltron, Thundercats, etc). I would have despised all the goofy jokes, and I would have despised the voice cast. Chris Hemsworth is no Peter Cullen, and Brian Tyree Henry is sure as f’k no Frank Welker. Keegan-Michael Key’s Bumblebee also seems annoying as f’k, and truth be told, I was never a fan of Bumblebee as a kid.
So without seeing Transformers One, that is where I am coming from, and I am guessing I am not alone.
Transformers isn’t Toy Story, and you can’t have it both ways. That said, maybe Transformers One is really good, but if so, again, they marketed it all wrong. I think fans wanted something like what was shown at the start of Rise of the Beasts, not Disneyfied goofiness. Transformers One should be a war movie, I have no idea if it is.
Regarding flopping for Hemsworth, when is the dude going to be done with goofy ass roles? Thor: Love and Thunder, Furiosa, Transformers?
