Viacom (the parent company of Paramount Pictures) held their 2019 1st Quarter Financial Call yesterday and announced that Transformers: Bumblebee drove the company’s profit for the quarter.
Statement made by Bob Bakish; CEO of Viacom:
“Paramount, where the turnaround continues to grow; with the studio delivering double-digit growth. Despite the intense competition [during] the busy holiday box office, we are pleased with the performance of Bumblebee which has earned more than $450 million worldwide. In the process, the film has reset the Transformers franchise and is solidly profitable.”
You can listen to the recording of the event via Viacom official website.
AnonymousDwell
Why are movie threads always the most contentious? I'm just pleased it did well. As for whether anything can be read into the "reset" language… I can't take a position, as there's no way to know, and plans and intentions are totally changeable anyway.
It could be a soft reboot. It could be in-continuity via a mechanism we don't know yet. It could be a partial retcon. It could be a trial balloon for a full on reboot. It could be a prequel and they simply don't care about continuity. And any of those, whatever the truth might be at any given time, could still change in the future too.
Why get so invested and heated in every topic about any of those positions when a) we don't know, and b) we could see it change anyway depending on whatever they decide going forward?
So I just say, again, I'm glad it did well, and leave it at that personally. (I can hope for a reboot, but that's not the same thing.)
Decepticon Miner
Good lord… please watch the movie again and read Music’s post! Holy crap.
Sorry buddy !
Music
There's an actual Starscream in the movie that looks more like Starscream than this random Seeker with Ramjet's color scheme. You've been told this countless times, but man, I guess you really are going to just ride this train until the second coming of Christ.
Stygian360
I don't see it as a reboot at all. At least not in the traditional definition of that term. It's essentially the equivalent of someone taking over a well-known property like say Charlie Brown and telling stories in that same universe but in a different style via a different artist/storyteller. In this case Travis took his likes (G1 style smoother more 'toyetic' robot designs and using more subdued storytelling) and ran with the ball that Bay already put in play. The worst thing Paramount could do is mess with what's working- (i.e., what Bay established as the world for these characters) and start completely from scratch via future films. The conceit of 80's Transformers toys come to life is a proven quantity and I believe Paramount knows this. Now it will be a process of safely navigating that already established world, so that other styles of film-making fit comfortably within it.
Personally I believe Travis will be back soon. I know he's said he's heading back to Laika to work on smaller more intimate productions, but what he did worked and I'm sure Paramount will be pressuring him to do a follow-up. However, the worst possible scenario would be to continually leverage Travis rather than regularly pass the torch. As long as they maintain the framework this franchise will continue to prove valuable and produce revenue… and more importantly… new toys.
No offense, but your POV is incredibly pessimistic. Is there room for any silver lining under that dark cloud?
Afterburner
This is the same information that was posted before just repackaged for the sake of another headline promoting against our interests. The arrow is pointing down and this didn't change that. The only thing accomplished here is you can expect everything to pander even more desperately to China. I guess over there Blitzwing doesn't triple change and looks like Starscream. Makes perfect sense because I just saw the next Justice League film is going to have Superman look like the Green Lantern. There's just really no other way to adapt it at this point, and I think it's very creative and original.
primal789
Also the Autobots learning English argument can't be legit if they were speaking it(including Decepticons) on Cybertron before knowing about Earth and also Travis only said stuff in favor in being part of the same universe an the guys at Viacom don't even care what it is in the first place,they only know it's something new.
PhoenixWielder
I\'m not going to jump on this yet. They said that it has reset the Transformer FRANCHISE, not the movies. So stuff like toys, comic, etc, would be under the franchise definition. I mean, would like this to be a reboot, but I\'m not taking this news as definite proof.
Grand Slam
If the quote were from Hasbro, I would agree, but it's Viacom. Their only direct intersection with Transformers is the movies.
PhoenixWielder
I\'m not going to jump on this yet. They said that it has reset the Transformer FRANCHISE, not the movies. So stuff like toys, comic, etc, would be under the franchise definition. I mean, would like this to be a reboot, but I\'m not taking this news as definite proof.
Moy
ZB7? Burton who? You can forget about all that.
MV95
Oy vey, I’m getting sick of this prequel/reboot arguing. This is such a vague sentence and it was said from a business standpoint. Viacom could care less about the movie being a reboot or prequel when they’re discussing their Q1 profits.
I still think it’s currently a prequel until further clarification (although at this point I think I’d prefer a reboot since TLK screwed anything up movie forward), but maybe let’s call a truce until Bumblebee 2 (or whatever movie is next) lol
TheSoundwave
I don't really think a lot of these are evidence. Travis Knight made the movie standalone because that's how movies should work. They should be accessible to new viewers who haven't watched the others.
Earth might not be old news to Bee if he lost his memory of WW2, which was implied in TLK.
The WW2 scene didn't imply Bumblebee had his name then. He was called ZB-7. The Autobots were public knowledge at the time of TLK, so Burton probably just picked up the name Bumblebee elsewhere. Vivian knew Soundwave and Shockwave's names without meeting them.
Stuff like the Autobots learning English through the internet, and the Autobots arriving before 2007 were already thrown out in past movies.
Maboroshi
Add another reason to the growing list that implies reboot.
#10 is particularly telling in conjunction with 11.
1. Prime informing Bumblebee of his discovery of Earth, a planet that should be old news to Bee.
2. Changing the opening of the movie from Bumblebee already on Earth (per TLK) to newly arriving on it.
3. Multiple lines of dialogue indicating S7 having prior knowledge of transformers cut from the final film.
4. Bee received his name in this movie, while TLK implied he's had it since WW2, identified by name on sight by someone who hadn't seen him since then.
5. Megatron's after credits scene in S7 was cut and replaced.
6. Prime and additional autobots arrive to live on Earth 20 years early, while TF1 implied 2007 was his first visit and staying there was a new decision.
7. The bots all learning English in the 80s instead of from the internet in the 2000s.
8. All the characters have completely new designs, even Bee's Camaro robot mode is totally different.
9. Travis stated he made this movie as self contained and standalone.
10. J.E "Rik" Alvarez (former creative manager and ongoing independent contractor at Hasbro involved in the live action movies) in October before release of the movie stated that Bumblebee started off as a prequel, however he thought it was actually turning into a reboot in a new timeline.
11. Bob Bakish, CEO of Viacom referred to the movie as a reset of the Transformers franchise in their Q1-19 financial meeting.
TheSoundwave
Not really. It could mean a variety of things. Reboot, soft reboot, a different story direction, a different director. Heck, it could mean they simply want future movies to all be spinoffs. We have no idea what they mean by it, other than generally a new direction. To say "it has to mean full reboot" is ignoring everything except what you want to see.
Saying Bumblebee "completely disregards the other movies" is just incorrect. There are tons of connections (more connections than contradictions in fact). The '70s Camaro, Hoover Dam, Sector 7, young Simmons, Bee's design (which is supposed to be a younger version of him), Bobby Blivia's voice in the teaser, etc. Plus, all the statements by Travis Knight about it being a prequel. For instance, he said he didn't include Megatron in the Cybertron scene because he was frozen in Hoover Dam during that time.
The Allspark not being mentioned isn't a contradiction. It was probably done to make this movie stand on it's own. They don't want people to have to watch the other movies to understand this one. They may have wanted to avoid a MacGuffin entirely.
Also, contradictions do not make it a reboot. This series was already filled with contradictions and things that didn't line up well. Is AOE a reboot because it ignored the Allspark? Is TLK a reboot because Burton had a painting of Megatron when he was supposed to be frozen? Is Star Wars Revenge of the Sith a reboot for having Padme die when Leia was a baby (before she could remember her mother)? Heck, Star Wars is filled with things that don't line up between the originals and the prequels. If contradictions are enough to make something a reboot, the prequels certainly wouldn't exist in the same continuity. Contradictions are just poor planning, not evidence of a reboot.
The movie was conceived, created, and marketed as a prequel. It came out of the same writers room that created TLK, and the rest of the (probably scrapped) "Cinematic Universe" movies. The movie itself didn't give a sure answer, and the statements from the filmmakers have been equally vague). The most on-the-nose thing we've heard is Lorenzo's remark about it being "99% a prequel, which people like to ignore because it doesn't fit the narrative they've created.
It's fine to want Bumblebee to be a reboot, and it's fine to think that's the route they'll go. But don't act like there's anything wrong with people assuming it's a prequel. We have no idea what's going on in Paramount's discussions. Considering Bumblebee hasn't even left theaters, it's likely they haven't made a final decision. We don't know.
I personally lean towards prequel because that's what most of the statements imply. My stance on that matter is "consider it a prequel until confirmed otherwise".
snokoan
incoming prequel defenders
NemesisPrime12
Yeah. Even though Bee change his alternate mode to the same one in 2007 movie, it also gets a very different look of Bumblebee.
Powerglide1991
AOE was a soft reset acknowledging previous events but giving us new characters etc. TLK was a direct sequel to that film.
Bumblebee completely disregards any of the other transformers movies. Bee wasnt around during WW2, no mention of the Allspark Cube at all, Humans not knowing about transformers, despite the fact old bucket head should be in hoover damn at this point, all of these could be given excuses admittedly, however, the biggest reason this is a complete reset, aka reboot?
Prime coming to earth, and having 7 autobot escape pods land on earth. When there was only 5 bots in the first film. This brings the total number of autobots at the end of bumblebee, to 9.
Bring on the cgi Cybertron movie, the prime movie and bumblebee 2, really curious to see how they go forward.
Terradives
Now let’s get bumblebee a voice, power him down, toss the ball gag, and get transformers to be the focal point of the film.
Onilink
They haven't used the words that you want to hear, but the meaning doesn't change. It's not a crossword definition, "reset for the tf franchise" has only one meaning.