Transformers: The Last Knight Concludes US Box Office Run

Its official, outside of the appearing soon at the super cheap old theaters, Transformers: The Last Knight has concluded its box office run in the United States. I think there are a few territories left to go but none of them major enough to move the box office total enough to matter from a business making decision perspective for Hasbro and Paramount. After the first weekend I made a prediction for the film's box office: "...an estimated worldwide take by the time the movie leaves theaters of $150M US + $225M China + $250M Rest of world = $625M." Surprising myself I pretty much nailed it with a slight over estimation of the US box office take. According to Box Office Mojo the total comes to $130.2M US + $228.8M China + $245 Rest of world = $604M. As I said before, while most movies would love this total, Hasbro and Paramount did not spend $217M + who knows in other expenses (advertising, etc.) for this kind of result. They were expecting an $1 billion box office take and would have accepted close to that number. This kind of drop often ends in franchises ending or relaunched (see all the Spider-Man movies).

Look at Bumblebee's 1980s Alt Mode

From the Instagram account of Kathy Applebaum, here are images of 'Bee's alt mode of a Volkswagen Beetle. The choice in alt-mode is a nod to 'Bee very first Generation 1 alt mode back in 1984. The Bumblebee movie, now filming, is set in 1987. (via TFW2005)

Transformers: The Last Knight Home Release is September 26

Paramount has revealed the release date of Transformers: The Last Knight on home video as September 26, 2017. The movie will come in the usual blu-ray combo packs along with a five movie collection if want all your Bayhem at once. The extra features are pretty typical of the last few years with a few behind the scenes features and not much else so no commentary track, gag reel, etc. Below is the press release. You can pre-order now at Amazon.

Transformers: The Last Knight 4K and 3D Blu-Ray
Paramount Home Media Distribution has officially announced that it will release on 4K Blu-ray 3D Blu-rayand Blu-ray director Michael Bay’s blockbuster’s Transformers: The Last Knight. The groundbreaking adventure will also be available as part of the Transformers’ 5-Movie Blu-ray Collection. All four releases will be available for purchase on September 26.

Hailee Reveals Character Look for Bumblebee Movie

In a tweet earlier this week, Bumblebee movie star Hailee Steinfeld revealed the look of her character saying "Meet Charlie Watson. #BumblebeeTheMovie". The movie is set in 1987 but really the outfit could fit in 2017. The movie is currently filming for release on December 18, 2018. Thanks to Feris O. for the link.

Transformers: The Last Knight Concept Art

If you are interested, click over to TFormers for some concept art that has been posted by five artists that worked on the film. The work is really great and the detail amazing considering much of it may have never been used for any aspect of the film.

Hasbro Revealed New Animated Series and Movie

In a press and investors meeting, Hasbro revealed some of the their future plans for the Transformers franchise for TV and movies. The highlights are:

- The current season of Transformers: Robots in Disguise will be its last

- The replacement cartoon is called Transformers: Cyberverse with Chapter 1 coming in 2018 and Chapter 2 in 2019. Series will be a mix of new and retold old stories. Imagery suggests a heavy Generation One influence but could jump eras (say Beast Wars for example).

- An animated movie is still in the works set in the Movieverse. No details on story, release date, etc except it would be released by Paramount Pictures via Hasbro's Allspark Pictures studio.

- Hasbro asked Paramount to bump Bumblebee release date from Summer to December 21, 2018. Reason not provided but assume to try to take advantage of the Holiday season for movie related toys and merchandise.

- Hasbro roadmap includes 2019 release of Transformers 6

The main takeaway is Hasbro continues to have high confidence in Transformers as a toy, movie and TV franchise.

Transformers Writers Room Done (But We Already Knew That)

In a bit of inexplicable news that I do not understand why is showing up on all the entertainment and Transformers sites is "confirmation" that the Transformers Writers Room and its leader Akiva Goldsman is done. But that was already true. The whole point of the room was get a bunch of writers together, plot out a potential movie factory of spec scripts, with Hasbro and Paramount potentially using them for future movies. The room ended up coming up with a dozen plus specs good for at least a decades worth of movies. It was always intended to be a one and done.

Two movies were already generated from those session - Transformers: The Last Knight and the Bumblebee movie. The writers, including Goldsman, may or may not be tapped to write future movie scripts based on the specs they produced. Akiva's responsibilities ended when the spec scripts were turned in nearly two years ago. So when others report this like its new news, it seems really to be a complete lack of understanding of what the room's purpose was. Instead the outlets missed an opportunity to try to get information on the real question. Not if the writers room is done (it was and has been for a while).

The real question is Hasbro and Paramount tossing those spec scripts or not? In other words have they lost complete confidence in the writers room output? Its a critical question in light of one of those scripts moving forward in the Bumblebee movie and also where the blame is being laid for the box office failure of Transformers: The Last Knight. Clearly I lay the TF5 blame at Michael Bay's feet, the writers' power on set being non-existent. If the writers room's output was tossed then the executives at Paramount and Hasbro reached a completely different conclusion. Whatever conclusion they reached will inform how who they hire and how they handle Transformers 6 (aka not Bay or more like Bay). Despite all the stories around the room, what we currently know has not changed one iota.

Bumblebee Release Date Moved, Cena Joins Cast as Filming Starts

Today Paramount Pictures released a touch more information about the Bumblebee movie which began principle photography today. To start, the release date of the movie has moved from June 2018 to December 21, 2018. Also announced is that WWE's John Cena is joining the cast in a "lead role." No details on the role were provided but I guess he will do the heavy lifting for any of the action sequences in the film. Last is an official synposis for the film that reveals 'Bee's alt mode will be a VW bug and Hailee Steinfeld's character is called Charlie.

On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.

While I have no problem with Cena joining the movie (what little seen him do he was fine in), I hope they are not having a teenager-ish movie that every time action stuff happens they have the cast take a backseat while the "adult" takes care of business. If there was one common thread of all the teenager movies of the 80s and 90s is the (usual rich) teenagers would get themselves into trouble and would also get themselves out of it. All with little or no meaningful assistance from the adult cast (see Ferris Beuller, Goonies, License to Drive, any John Hughes movie, etc.).

As for the release date movie, no explanation was provided for the move but after the trouncing The Last Knight got my guess is Paramount is hoping less competition will yield better results. I agree with the move, its a smart one. Just don't agree with the weekend they chose. After all the holiday time frame is usually when Hollywood releases all their Oscar-bait films with a sprinkling of action films. November will see release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix (11/2/18), Fantastic Beats 2 (11/16/18), Wreck-It Ralph 2 (11/21/18) among others. December has Aquaman on 12/21/18. The same date as Bumblebee movie. It seems like an odd choice since had other more potential less risky weekends since the audience for Aquaman and the Bumblebee movie are probably near identical regardless of one of them being more teenager friendly and 40% of the budget of the other. Guess see in a year and half if it was a smart choice or not.