Congratulating Jim Gianopulos for the 2018 turnaround success of the movie studio, Viacom (parent company of Paramount Pictures) CEO Bob Bakish stated that Transformers: Bumblebee is ‘solidly profitable’.
This was most noticeable as Viacom admitted that Transformers: The Last Knight acquired a $100 million loss for the company back in 2017 and created a domino effect which could have sent Paramount to a doomed state had it not been for their new CEO’s timely action.
“Bakish congratulated Paramount for a successful turnaround, using the latest in the Transformersfranchise as an example: Bumblebee, he said, is “solidly profitable” while its predecessor in the summer of 2017 lost more than $100 million.”
Speaking to Bloomberg, Mr. Gianopulos stated that they are trying to “recharge” the Transformers franchise amidst the recent announcement of shelving the latest movie of the Star Trek franchise.
“Gianopulos is also trying to recharge “Transformers,” which is based on the Hasbro Inc. toys. Derided for being shallow, irritatingly loud and with contrived machismo, the 2017 installment — the final one to be directed by Michael Bay — was the lowest-grossing in the series and scored just 15 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, with director Travis Knight, the franchise has been re-imagined, and the recently released “Bumblebee” — which stars a female lead and was the first “Transformers” screenplay to be written by a woman — is already meeting positive reviews.”
cybergaurdian
Haven't seen it……the last one just burned me out on Bayverse, but I am glad that this seems to be resetting things to be closer to what we expect our heroes/villains to look like. Maybe I will see this next week on my day off. Just have not gotten excited about it.
AzT
‘Bumblebee’ Buzzes Past $400M WW – What’s Next For The Autobots
GizmoTron
There are a lot of movies that have done this story better, and I think the actual reviews reflect that. The whole Rotten Tomato meter isn't rigged so much as misunderstood, and I don't think the reviews were goosing the box office here (Disney movies and Star Wars, maybe another story), especially since A) Paramount doesn't have that kind of money right now to manufacture a 90% or better positive rating, and B) the reviews all seem to consider this a C+/B- level movie.
But that's ok to me, since that's still better than the flat out F the Last Knight was, and is worth getting excited about because it means these movies are back on the right track. Let's just hope they don't flub the sequel.
SillyMcGilly
Yes! That and a Beast Wars parallel series kinda like X-Men to the MCU would be INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!!!!
KindaMagnus
Finally. They can just get started on the next one! What would you guys like to see in a follow up? Personally I’d like to see A cybertronian war theme. More of what we got in the first couple minutes of BB but with maybe some more insight into the mindsets and backgrounds of Optimus and Megatron. Flashback style. That would be perfect for me.
SillyMcGilly
I'm not criticizing the feat. If you said "By the way, you hear the main writer is female?" I would probably go "Oh, that's cool." But this is supposed to be the CEO talking about the movie's success and good feedback. Anything with a social issues/political bent simply does not fit in a talk like this. A movie's success shouldn't at ALL be attached to sexes or race or ethnicity or even religion. All you're doing is causing controvercy that otherwise didn't exist. You're prolonging the problem. Not supporting its abolition.
Now, I will say that I could have totally misunderstood this guy's intentions. But nowadays, large businesses seem to operate on politics more than simple creativity, which makes me very sceptical many times.
divinecomedy
Ok, let's not compare it to the Godfather, how about a Golden Globe contender like Green Book. I watched a ton of movies over the holiday because I am a proud member of AMC A Stubs, and I think Bumblebee's the worst movie of them all. Again it's not a bad movie, but seriously ….. I've watched better "growing up" movie than this. I mean doesn't this remind people of …. E.T.? Now that's a classic. Heck Stand By Me beats this crap anytime too.
It's obvious the whole thing is rigged. Reviewers have to play the game too. Movies like Bumblebee, Star Wars 8, etc will be given a thumbs up just to goose box office earnings. I am not saying that action movies can not be great movies. The last Mad Max movie for example is a true MASTERPIECE, and all it is (in a nutshell) is just one giant long chase. I watched it in the cinema twice (out of my own pocket).
GizmoTron
Rotten Tomatoes is the percentage of reviews that were positive, not the actual rating. It just means that the large majority of critics thought the movie was at least all right.
Obviously it's not anywhere as good as something like Godfather. There's never going to be a Transformers movie that will ever be that good. If that's going to be your bar, you're going to be consistently disappointed no matter what Hasbro does.
Most movie-goers probably don't, no, but there are plenty who do. But I don't think he was trying to sell the movie on that fact alone so much as point out that this movie isn't just status quo. The thing being sold really is that Bumblebee is a bit different than the previous movies, that the franchise is willing to make changes and evolve a little, and that they aren't just making same Bay sequel for the fifth time.
I think you're projecting a little if you think anyone at Paramount attributes the movie's success solely on the writer. That's almost certainly not the case. But this an action movie that starred a female lead, and it was written by a woman. Two firsts for the Transformers franchise, maybe a combined first for Paramount? These are facts, it makes sense that Paramount's CEO is touting them, and I don't think it's really sexism for him to point out those facts.
Actually I think it's a bit more a case of sexism that some people will hear "hey guess what? Some lady wrote this movie. Isn't that neat?" and can only respond with "men can write good movies, too, you know!" I mean, which is really more sexist? The CEO praising the accomplishment and the success of a female writer in a field where there aren't very many women and Paramount now may no longer overlook female writers for future projects, or the fan worrying that now the next Transformers movie might also be written by a woman again instead of a male writer because (ironically) fairness?
SillyMcGilly
Pointing it out is one thing. But this is about the movie's success, so that leads me to believe they think the success is BECAUSE it has a female writer. That was one of the MAIN POINTS they said. Worth mentioning, but it shouldn't be a main selling point. Just like being a woman shouldn't be the main selling point in a political campaign. You push too far against sexism, and then you fall in the other ditch of sexism. Balance is key in life. People are way too linear.
BigRed
If you understand why he pointed out the movie had female writer and actress why are you still wondering why he did it?
SillyMcGilly
I get that, but saying the writer being a woman is most likely a significant reason for it being goodand/or a success is simply not true. Note-worthy, maybe. But it shouldn't be a selling point. And claiming it is when you gotta pretty much go searching to find out who the writer is, when most people watch it based on how it looks in trailers and what critics say, it's pretty silly if not absurd. Worthy of mentioning? Yes, but it's not a selling point. People just want a good movie. Most movie-goers don't give a crap about who wrote it until they see it at least.
divinecomedy
Another overrated movie. It's not as bad as the Bay ones, but it's not a classic either. I fell asleep halfway through and didn't feel I missed anything.
92% on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah guys, the Godfather is only 7% better. That's the height of insanity right there. The only consolation is 20 years from now, they'll flip that 92 to 29.
GizmoTron
Yes, men and women are equal at everything blah blah blah…Everyone knows that.
But in this case, in addition to the fact that women writers in action movies are beyond rare which alone makes it noteworthy, when the goal is to show that as a franchise you're moving away from the zany frat boys toilet humor that only insulted the audience at best throughout the first five movies and made your franchise a joke even among popcorn flicks, saying "hey did you know a woman wrote Bumblebee?" is worth pointing out and just might have a lot to do with getting people (especially, ya know, women) who gave up on these movies after the 2007 film a reason to give Transformers movies another chance.
SillyMcGilly
Gender has nothing to do with it. Don't getme posting NPC memes. ;P
GizmoTron
No one ever said it was the "sole reason" the movie was good. But let's face it, it most certainly played a factor.
Rodimus Prime
I'm odd in that I prefer her toy face.
BigRed
If they do a Cybertron movie I hope they go for a completely new art style for that, because Cybertron often looks like a nondescript hunk of dark and rusty and boring metallic segments in the games and comics and in the beginning of this movie. I feel like we need something a little more clear and easy on the eyes if we'll be staring at it for 1 hour and a half.
Venixion
Hopefully Bumblebee's success means that someday, we'll get a good Cybertron only movie about the war.
Haywired
IDK, she's one of the few GoBots most of people who are into nerdy franchises knows. Now the fun part is that Hasbro can't use her old cartoon likeness… But they can come with "inspired" designs that transform in a different way, since cartoon Crasher was mostly defined by her color scheme (dat face for an example).
Lumpy
What's another word for Fracture? Shatter…