Following up our report last week on a Forbes article making the case that Paramount needs a win with The Last Knight, we bring you news of another Forbes piece that details the importance of the Transformers movie franchise to China’s film industry.
Dark of the Moon marked the first time that a Hollywood movie made its way into the billion dollar box office club because China had pushed it over the top.
The most recent entry in the franchise, Transformers: Age of Extinction, once again stunned both China and Hollywood by grossing a record-destroying $320 million in the Middle Kingdom.
Check out the article here and share your thoughts on the 2005 boards!
Autobot Burnout
I'm afraid that the facts mean nothing because it isn't immediately impacting what folks are getting from the franchise. Until the headline "PARAMOUNT/HASBRO CANCELS TRANSFORMERS CINEMATIC UNIVERSE" or "PARAMOUNT GOES BANKRUPT" shows up, the sad fact is the white knights of the franchise simply don't give a damn about the long term economics.
Which is to say when the day the sky is falling for the movies – and that day will come – people are going to run around like headless chickens as the saying goes because it wouldn't be like anybody predicted that the franchise or its production studio would crash and burn somehow.
YoungPrime
I don't think fans of this franchise understand what $1B for this film would represent in this case. When it was all said in done Paramount took about $250M of AOE's WW box office once the pie was divided. Which would be great in other circumstances but this is a Studio that's like -$600M in the hole coming into this year with nothing but flops in 2017 so far…. They're still hiding behind embargo's for as long as they can. PLUS! Have you seen tracking for this sequel….?
‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Hoping To Catch Opening In The $100M Vicinity
China's box office looks better and better but doesn't hold a candle to the percentage Hollywood gets from the domestic box office (55% US vs 25% – 30% China).
People don't wanna hear this but they're facts! I've been staying this for months now and all you hear in return is "hater" this…. and "Troll" that.. But the numbers will speak for themselves in the end.
Ash from Carolina
Well we do have Dunkirk coming out this year so maybe Hollywood is kissing up to the Brits
Either that or it's Hollywood's way of saying sorry for the Brits being the bad guys in the Star Wars films
Electro Rush
I'm afraid to say, but we're all SOL.
YoungPrime
I don't know but you can look at Paramount's increasing box office deficit as karma.
Miyaren
i respect your opinion, so maybe Pirates 5 is a better comparison? It came out smack bang between Aliens and Wonder woman, and is bombing stateside but on track for 850 worldwide. China is only contributing around 150 of the sum of that 850. Like AOE, the previous pirates were very much disliked. Now, china is gonna contribute at least 300 million in TLK's case, and assuming all other markets allign similar to pirates 5, its still going to be a 1 billion cum.
RKillian
I still wonder when the nightmare will be over.
YoungPrime
I didn't forget it, I just don't think it's a fair comparison. The only thing they have in common is that they're both action flicks.
The last four Fast films quality have improved and all have Fresh RT ratings. I don't even follow that franchise but the difference is that people don't go out of their way to hate it either. You either watch it or not.
Also comparing Boss Baby positioning to the Despicable Me franchise doesn't quite pass the smell test either. Despicable Me has far better quality than Bayformers and it will take a larger portion of Bayformers demographic the following weekend than Boss Baby did with Fast/Fury.
Then there's Paul Walker…. So yeah, I'm sticking to what I stated before. Bay's crap will win it's opening weekend but after that I see a 70%+ drop the next weekend.
Darkwing48
I like to add that Furious 8 wasn't the best story. But it was fun, and funny.
I think without the China setting, it will still be big there, but it will bomb elsewhere.
People like F8 better than AoE.
Miyaren
you forget Fast Furious 8. Thtat movie grossed 1.2 Billion and there didnt seem to be much anticipation either. It also only cleared 210 mil in America but over indexed in China. I see Bay 5 having a similar run. I follow an English message board that monitors Chinese boxoffice and TLK just went onto Pre sales. They measure it is pacing very similar to Fast 8 there if not more….
Also back during furious 8, it had a 2 week window to make its main cash before Guardians 2, and its same situation as having 2 weeks for TLK before spiderman. Furious 8 also contended with Boss baby the following weekend (and DM3 for TLK, which is admittedly a bigger property)
Miyaren
Hi i remember i was in Shanghai during June when AOE came out and it was insane promotion. I went to Joy City and they had a exhibition for the toys! i so want to go back this year to see what the promotion is like. Is there a lot of transformers posters, cm around town??
Raiju
TLK seemingly has huge portions of the movie set (and shot) in Britain, has more than a few prominent British actors in important roles, and ensconces itself in British mythology, specifically Arthurian lore. By some people's faulty logic, I expect TLK to do more than 10x the normal box office numbers in the UK as a result.
Now apply this same line of thinking to China. At this point some folks have to ask themselves, why would you even think this? Where are the complaints that the UK is ruining Hollywood? Or that Hollywood is pandering to the Brits?
At any rate, what would people say if and when TLK makes a boatload of cash in China despite there being little to no Chinese locations, Chinese actors/characters, or anything remotely Chinese in it? Probably still pushing their "narrative" while wholly ignoring other factors at play, would be my guess.
G1 Evac
Yes from Shanghai! I can't speak for the whole country but within my circles, we can't wait to see it! I myself am excited about the Arthurian mythos because I like to see modern twists in ancient legends. Also it seems like it will reveal answers to a lot of questions, like Anthony Hopkins said, Why Earth? Who created the Transformers? How did Megatron become so cool looking? Why didn't they use Frank Welker in the first place? Why is Bumblebee doing the Iron Man? Why are Dinobots reproducing? Who is their mother? If evil Prime banes Bumblebee does that make Hot Rod the new batman? Does Cogman say Head On! when he does his head-off? Why isn't Cogman's name Your-Guillotine? Are the knights of the round table… Visionaries?! Is Sam dead?!!!? (Please, please, please make it so…)
China contributed disproportionately to AOE's coffers because distribution grew disproportionately in China vs other countries. If you want a serious understanding you can google the Wanda Group and its aggressive strategy in growing profits through real estate (building cinemas), selling the cinema experience (a way to capture growing Chinese disposable income and recreation expenditure) and creating content (owning and profiteering from movie-making).
Yes, exactly. Distribution and popularity. Popularity because of TF's formula that is appealing to the male segment, as well as the female segment, and more importantly the family segment. It enjoys strong appeal also across age groups. In a growing market, a strong brand would capture a lot more of that growth, making TF a big winner.
I wouldn't use the word pandering. I mean nobody goes to watch a movie to see product placements. I mean do you cheer when a movie tells you to buy something? The reverse is actually happening, the movie is popular in China thats why there are Chinese product placements. It is illogical the other way around.
Yes, everybody here may think they are a critic but movie-goers aren't critics. They don't go watch a movie because it has intrinsic artistic value and high cinematic quality. People watch movies the same reason they buy brands, because of marketing and distribution. You could be The Shawshank Redemption and you will still bomb if you're playing in only a few select cinemas and your only marketing is passing out flyers of a photo of your oscar to homeless people in the park.
jackgaughan
No offense……………..but these aren't thinking man movies either………….
Ash from Carolina
Yea this whole depend on China has had a horrible effect on what Hollywood will and will not do now. The number one question for any large film is can they get the stamp of approval from the Chinese government to show their big budget film there. It's oh we better not take a chance we could offend them on anything. Even down to there isn't a studio in Hollywood that would dare to do even the smallest of small budget films on the Tiananmen Square protest for fear that the Chinese government would retaliate by blocking all of that studio's films.
Sadly as long as ticket buyers go for marketing over film quality we are going to be stuck with an endless flood of really bad Hollywood films. Which is kind of odd considering all the taste the Chinese have in art, music, culinary arts, dance and other forms of artistic expression that foreign films would be the one place that taste seems to fail them.
YoungPrime
The catering is back here ironically where they need it the most and meant for a lot of the reluctant moviegoers that Bay, Paramount and Bayformer fans told to kiss off once it was deemed a success w/o us. China's numbers were great but Paramount only gets a quarter of it (if they're lucky). Paramount desperately need the domestic numbers to at least double the budget of making this film in order for box offices overseas to really help them out of their tremendous deficit. Especially when every big budget film they're released in the last year has flopped or barely broken even.
That being said with all the competition I doubt this film will break $1B this time. And they'll be lucky if it breaks $200M this time in the US.
LOL that Despicable me 3 has you shook but truth is many weren't hyped for Bay 5 regardless.
autobotlongarm
It would pass the $2 billion if people would stop watching movies from brainless corporations like Illumination Entertainment.
Autobot Burnout
Actually, it just occurred to me that this is the same magazine that certain people were shit talking because they posted the earlier article about how Paramount is using TF5 as a tent pole and needs to do well.
Talk about fair weather friends when those same people probably look at this new article that supports TF5 being 'good' and praise it.
Given that is a level not even Marvel has achieved yet, the Transformers films will never break $2 billion without the help of inflation.
True, but even then, franchise fatigue will set in eventually. Especially when all the major movie studios are trying to shove big special effects blockbusters into a country where people can't afford to go to the theater all the time.
Raiju
Not definitive of cause and effect. That's like saying that the American flags shown in a Bay film, the more American ticket buyers will flock to his movies. Doesn't work that way.
My thoughts exactly. Distribution is the larger factor at play here. That and China sure seems to love their robots.
03Mach1
Its more than that, though. The US theater goer is dwindling while other countries are either emerging or expanding markets. The quality of the movie is not the only factor.