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    Beloved Sci-Fi Action Franchise Becomes 2024’s Biggest Box Office Loser

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    Beloved Sci-Fi Action Franchise Becomes 2024’s Biggest Box Office Loser

    2024 has been a strange year at the box office, with some original projects like Civil War scoring big bucks, while major franchises and IPs like The Crow and Joker: Folie à Deux have dwindled in comparison. The latest victim of 2024’s sporadic box office earnings comes via the latest entry in one of Paramount’s longest-running cash-cows, Transformers One. The new animated movie, featuring the voices of MCU alumni Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johanson, and Brian Tyree Henry, along with Keegan Michael-Key, has received strong reviews from fans and critics, with an 89% critics score, and an even more impressive 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.




    But, despite the warm reception and the limited competition, Transformers One is scraping by on the skin of its teeth (do Transformers have teeth?) at the box office. From its entire theatrical run so far, Transformers One has grossed just $58.5 million at the domestic box office. This is a far cry from the Michael Bay days of before, when the Transformers franchise, fitted with a kick-ass Linkin Park soundtrack, dominated theaters — even if some critics weren’t fans.

    While Transformers One‘s box office performance is incredibly underwhelming, it has still managed to surpass 2024’s biggest surprise flop, Joker: Folie à Deux. Todd Phillips’ second outing in an alternate Gotham City is one of the lowest-grossing live-action DC Comics movies of all time. Last weekend, Transformers One managed to outperform Folie à Deux at the box office, despite having been in theaters for far longer. Joker: Folie à Deux‘s total domestic box office gross sits just behind Transformers One‘s at a measly $58.2 million.



    Transformers Two Could Still Happen

    Transformers One was intended to kickstart a new animated franchise following everyone’s favorite warring robotic factions. The movie takes audiences back in time, years before the Autobots land on Earth, exploring Optimus Prime’s friendship with Megatron, before they split apart to form the Autobots and Decepticons. It serves as the origin story for the fan-favorite characters, while also setting up the conflict fans have been seeing in live-action for decades now. Even though the box office total is concerning, a sequel could see Transformers One continue to tell its acclaimed story.


    Speaking to Screen Rant, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed that the team behind Transformers One already has an outline for a potential sequel. “We already have, I think, the beginnings of a really interesting story for the second one, which is also character-based, the way the first [is].” There’s just one thing standing in their way, the box office. Unlike the AllSpark (or “The Cube” as it’s called in the Michael Bay movies), which can destroy a single Transformer’s core, the box office has the potential to wipe out the entire franchise. Bonaventura said, “Number one, if we’re successful with this [Transformers] movie, we’re going to do a sequel for this.” Unfortunately, Transformers One has been anything but successful at the box office.

    Related

    Why Transformers One Underperformed at the Box Office

    Franchise fatigue and poor marketing have doomed Transformers One at the box office.


    Transformers One marks an anomaly in the strange box office goings-on of 2024. While films like The Crow and Borderlands failed at the box office because they were bad movies, Transformers One is suffering from poor turnout. It’s hard to label Transformers One as a complete failure because of its record-high reviews. But, good reviews are rarely enough to warrant a sequel.

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