Hasbro held their 2018 3rd Quarter Investor Call yesterday and talked briefly about their upcoming Transformers: Bumblebee movie.
Brian Goldner (Hasbro CEO) mentioned that the movie received positive feedback from the test audience and multiple demographics were pleased with what they saw.
“In partnership with Paramount, our Transformers feature film Bumblebee will arrive in theaters December 21st. Products were arriving on shelves to begin the fourth quarter, and sales are off to a strong start. In the US and Canada segment, Transformers revenues in the quarter increased double-digits. Retailers are enthusiastically behind this initiative which promises to be our most all-family, all-audience, dual-gender film ever. Feedback from early audience screenings has been outstanding. We have a significant number of innovative brand offerings arriving for this holiday season across franchise and partner brands as well as gaming. In fact, you will see Hasbro’s strong representation as retailers unveil their holiday initiatives for consumers across converged retail, in stores, online, and mobile, and in all forms of marketing digitally, including content to commerce, shoppable social content, toy books, and toy lists. To fuel our future growth, we have tremendous innovation in entertainment for 2019.”
He elaborated further during the Q&A Session which followed the presentation. You can read more about it, after the jump.
Question: “Brian, can you talk about the product lineup and licensing program you had for Bumblebee relative to other Transformers films and how you’d expect the sales cadence to progress relative to prior transformer film cycles?”
Answer: “Sure. First of all, Bumblebee just began setting on shelves first in the US just in early October. We’re already seeing very strong results out of the gate, albeit early days. And our fans are responding quite positively to the product that they’ve gotten thus far. Our major retailers have identified the property as a top-level property because it not only has great toy and game products but consumer products. Our teams are supporting it with digital games as well. And Backflip [Studios] is offering new elements within its Earth Wars mobile game. The cadence is that the film comes out at the end of December in many markets. And then it will be a bit later in January in some markets. And we’re still waiting on getting our date in China which is typical until later you go, and we go show the film in China. And then they’ll make a decision on the date. But certainly, it will happen likely after the New Year.
And there are a few other territories where, for competitive reasons and for retail reasons, it’s coming after the New Year. So, movie’s impact on the brand will certainly be seen on the 4th quarter and in the 1st quarter. And then, of course, the home entertainment windows for all of these brands, our partner brands, and certainly for Bumblebee are more pronounced than ever before as more people are watching entertainment at home. And we would expect that to come in the first half of next year, the home entertainment to come in the first half of next year. And this is all part of new storytelling around Transformers and will continue with new television which is launched as well and also streaming content for fans. And so, the brand has a robust lineup. And as we mentioned, in the US where we are a bit ahead on the strategy, Transformers was up double digits in the quarter.”
snokoan
I dont want to sound rude but you do realize in the article it said that it'll change closer to the release date and tickets aren't even in sell yet
Darth Gonzo
So the projections for Bumblebee's box office does not look good.
Aquaman & Bumblebee Box Office Projections Are Franchise Worsts
Darth Gonzo
Well they could make it so the kids can go back and forth between Earth and D&D land, like Oz and Narnia.
RKillian
I've been "working" on a sequel to Battle of the Rocklords since 1999 too. And it matters just as much as their "plans" until one of us actually _does_ something.
That would also fit the description of a Dolph Lundgren MOTU "adaptation" movie.
This is exactly it and it's why crossovers are almost always stupid. The focus is on the novelty of "ZOMGLOLWTFBBQ character X in universe Y!1one" and _not_ an interesting story.
Bass X0
I’d like to see a Masterforce style movie in which the humans aren’t allied to the Transformers but actually are the Transformers.
Bass X0
Hitting all the important issues just as well as your namesake.
GirlBot
That was actually the first thing that popped into my head at the mention of D&D. I loved it as a kid But it still doesn't stop me from wondering how it would fit with the rest of the universe… it feels a lot like a separate entity.
SilverOptimus
Word I heard from Paramount is that G. I. Joe movies won't get connected to Hasbro Cinematic Universe. Nor would be the Transformers movies.
Metalwario64
Yeah, doesn't everyone see how that worked for DC?
Cosbydaf
Seriously! It's a bad idea, trying to tie together brands like G.I Joe and D&D that have nothing to do with each other. Get some good Transformers movies made instead of copying the MCU.
Autobot Burnout
And they shouldn't do it. It's a terrible idea based on a fad that even Disney couldn't make work beyond Marvel, purely because the appeal is not in the franchises but in the idea it's some stupid crossover of a bunch of franchises out of the gate.
Darth Gonzo
They haven't started the HCU yet. They've been planning it out for the last 4 years.
Autobot Burnout
I would rather there not be a Hasbro Cinematic Universe. Trying to crossover everything like Marvel is extremely lazy as it's just trying to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks.
Then again, given how up shit creek Hasbro is right now, maybe they don't have much of a choice – ironically having put themselves into such a position because of that exact strategy backfiring out of the starting gate.
Darth Gonzo
Here's how D&D can be in the HCU.
GirlBot
Having an aligned comic universe would be a great thing to have waiting between the movies.
Is D&D supposed to be a part of HCU and not simply a Hasbro movie? I'm not sure how that would work. D&D is a fantasy series. Other properties lean more into sci-fi setting. I don't really see a connection
Darth Gonzo
Well the HCU is starting in 2020 with G.I. Joe, then Micronauts. and in 2021 is Dungeons & Dragons, then an untitled Hasbro event movie. Also I hope the IDW reboot is still a shared comic universe just so it can give us more story lines that can be used in the HCU.
Dinobot Snarl
It's been strangled into a G1 movie anyway.
I'm sure it started with Bay holding the ugly stick high, ready to beat down all our childhood memories and dance around the corpse, whistling as dollar bills rained down….but Hasbro interviened and now the movie verse lives on life support with Daniel at the bedside.
GirlBot
I do hope that it turns out to be a very enjoyable family drama, but I don't hold any higher hopes for a sequel. I think that TLK told all that was left to the old universe. They could always try to defeat Unicron, but everyone knows how that would end so that's kind of boring.
Personally, I'd really like HCU to take off some time soon. Mainly, because it would be something completely new and some of those other properties sound interesting. We had Revolution/First Strike in comics, but I think that the shared universe can be done much smoother.
So cheers for a happy TF future
Darth Gonzo
Even if Bumblebee is good I still think it's the last Bayformers movie.
GirlBot
I think that it really depends on the perspective. Some people simply treat Transformers as yet another flashy sci-fi Hollywood blockbuster. Those movies are supposed to only look pretty, if you want quality content you need to look elsewhere. Paraphrasing one of the local critics: these are movies for older kids that require a little more sophisticated visuals than what animation has to offer. And yes, he threw into one bag both Star Wars and Transformers at the time. The best evidence is the foreign BO: DOTM – $771.4, CA: Civil War – $745.2, SW: The Last Jedi – $712.4, Black Panther – $646.9, POTC: Dead Man Tell No Tales – $622.3, Thor: Ragnarok – $538.9, The Last Knight – $475.3, GOTG Vol.2 – $473.9. I know some fans of blockbusters are really passionate about their entertainment and claim that they would never watch something of subpar quality, but… to some people there's not much difference between a bad Hollywood blockbuster and an average Hollywood blockbuster since in the end neither one of them is good.
(Besides, everyone knows that if you want good quality entertainment you need to read a book. After all, aren't all the best movies book adaptations? )