TF5 Box office performances

[griffin]

The first of the major box office numbers have come in from America (http://news.tfw2005.com/2017/06/25/transformers-last-knight-opens-1-us-342640), with their opening weekend coming in at US$69.1 million... the lowest opening weekend of the five Transformers movies, but managing the number 1 spot for the weekend because it was the only major movie starting that week.

It is also noted that it is not just the lowest opening of the five Transformers Movies, but significantly lower than the others, which all apparently opened above US$100 million in the first weekend.

Looks like all hopes will be on China again, which has noted a strong performance on its first day over there (http://news.tfw2005.com/2017/06/24/transformers-last-knight-opens-strong-china-342548).

[griffin]

First week Box Office numbers, at Boxofficemojo website (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/).

In its first full week, Transformers has managed to be the number 1 movie in almost every country it opened in last week (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/).

That includes Australia as well, earning almost 4.5 million.

Unfortunately, that is well down on all four previous Transformers movies in Australia in their first weeks.

2007 movie (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/australia/?yr=2007&wk=26&currency=local&p=.htm) - $8.067 million
2009 movie (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/australia/?yr=2009&wk=26&currency=local&p=.htm) - $13.647 million
2011 movie (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/australia/?yr=2011&wk=26&currency=local&p=.htm) - $12.414 million
2014 movie (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/australia/?yr=2014&wk=26&currency=local&p=.htm) - $8.802 million
2017 movie (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/australia/?yr=2017&wk=25&currency=local&p=.htm) - $4.468 million

Barely half the first week takings of the first and fourth movies, and a mere third of the other two.

Meanwhile in America, it's first weekend earned (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2017&wknd=25&p=.htm) US$44.7 million, giving it number one for the three day weekend of June 23-25. This was in addition to the Tuesday-Thursday screenings (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekly/chart/?yr=2017&wk=24&p=.htm) in America earning US$23.8 million.
Sometime in the next two days we should have the first full week numbers.

As expected, the Chinese market is the one earning most (https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/transformers-the-last-knight-1-in-uk-korea-china-highest-ad-spending-2677m-global-debut/38713/), with their first week earning about US$125 million.
The earnings in Asia will determine if we will see any more.... and if another movie does come, the earnings of this one will determine the size of the budget of the next one.

With a budget of about US$250 million, and a marketing budget of almost the same amount, the current global earnings of about US$300 million means that there is still a long way to go yet to make this one a definite financial success for Paramount.

[griffin]

After three weeks, and still some countries yet to start their run (including Japan, Spain, and Latin America), the Movie has made about US$500 million (http://news.tfw2005.com/2017/07/11/transformers-last-knight-third-weekend-final-numbers-343701).

For most movies that is an excellent amount, and is only US$200 million away from the 2007 movie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers_(film_series)#Reception)... but that first movie had a significantly smaller budget (US$150 million) and marketing campaign. (this movie had a US$250 million budget, and would easily have spent US$100-150 million on marketing - like most studios spend on the really big budget movies these days to make sure they don't flop)

At least this fifth movie can now be called a financial success (even when counting the marketing expense), just not a significant success like the previous four. The DVD/download sales will also be a big factor for profits for Paramount.
Rest assured that this should guarantee a least TF 6 & 7.... and now that Michael Bay isn't a guaranteed Billion Dollar Director now, we shouldn't see Hasbro or Paramount throwing mountains of money at him to get him to come back (for TF7). TF6 may or may not be a significant success either, but at least now we can see for sure if it was the concept or the Director making these Transformers movies such a favourite to the general public.

[G1Optimal]

According to this site the movie budget was less than 250 million
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=transformers5.htm

[griffin]

According to this site the movie budget was less than 250 million
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=transformers5.htm

Earlier figures had it at 250-260, but most sites are now saying 217 million, so that's probably the "official" budget... before marketing (most big budget movies recently spend 100-150 million just on marketing).

After four weeks (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/default.htm?id=transformers5.htm), TF5 has limped up to US$551 million, with just US$127 million in America (23% of the total earnings - and less than Spiderman made in just its first week).
China (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/china/?yr=2017&wk=29&p=.htm) has earned almost double that amount, at US$228 million (which is about 41% of the total earnings - quite spectacular considering they only accounted for just under 10% of the 2007 Movie earnings (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=transformers06.htm)).
Australia contributed about US$10 million to that total (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/australia/?yr=2017&wk=29&p=.htm).

The breakdown by all countries can be seen here (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=transformers5.htm).

And some random comparison stats from the six (it includes the 1986 movie) Transformers movies (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=transformers.htm).

[Trent]

And some random comparison stats from the six (it includes the 1986 movie) Transformers movies (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=transformers.htm).

To anyone who hadn't seen the movies, from those figure comparisons it would be safe to assume that Revenge of the Fallen was the best of the lot :p

[Ralph Wiggum]

If poor reviews aren't enough, then hopefully the lacklustre box office performance of TLK is a wake up call for the studio that Baysplosions aren't enough to bring in the audience.

[Magnus]

It's tempting to just say that the movie itself 'wasn't that good' - which itself is subjective - but what's what people have said about all the movies, so why is it only now that that sort of thing would be having an effect?

There are other factors that could come into play. What about franchise fatigue? Quite a few franchises suffer diminishing box-office receipts as the series progresses, and this is now the franchise's fifth movie over ten years. Then there's the competition this season; any movie would have a hard time competing with Spider-man: Homecoming.

It's kind of sad that people are treating these numbers like some kind of failure or flop, even with the huge numbers the previous movies were pulling in.

[G1Optimal]

It's tempting to just say that the movie itself 'wasn't that good' - which itself is subjective - but what's what people have said about all the movies, so why is it only now that that sort of thing would be having an effect?

There are other factors that could come into play. What about franchise fatigue? Quite a few franchises suffer diminishing box-office receipts as the series progresses, and this is now the franchise's fifth movie over ten years. Then there's the competition this season; any movie would have a hard time competing with Spider-man: Homecoming.

It's kind of sad that people are treating these numbers like some kind of failure or flop, even with the huge numbers the previous movies were pulling in.

In the end it is not up to us, it is up to paramount if it got enough return to justify another movie after bumblebee

[Megatran]

Is there any mention on how much they made from product placement?

[griffin]

Is there any mention on how much they made from product placement?

I doubt that would ever be made public... but I've always wondered if that money is part of the official "budget" that websites list as US$217-220 million, or if that declared amount is just from the movie studio, and the product placements & cross promotions are in addition to that amount.

[DELTAprime]

Well TLK has ended it's box office run with a combined US and International total of only $604m USD.

http://news.tfw2005.com/2017/08/27/transformers-last-knight-box-office-run-concluded-347481

[griffin]

That's still a great figure for any movie... and would have made Paramount a little bit of money after all its expenses and marketing.... but it will be seen as a failure just because it is so much less than the previous two (by almost half).

If this had been the second Transformers Movie, and earned that much back, it would be seen as an acceptable shrinkage of return (as most sequels do), and still be deemed as a very bankable franchise for future movies. Unfortunately, it put the brakes on future budgets, and scheduling (the Bumblebee movie was pushed back 6 months, and there have been no official announcements of the 2019 movie, even at SDCC, and it should have been greenlit by now).

[Magnus]

To be fair, this is the fifth movie in the franchise in ten years. Some sort of drop-off was inevitable.

It's far from alone: this year, War for the Planet of the Apes has so far brought in just over half of what Dawn of the Planet of the Apes brought in, and both The Fate of the Furious and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales have had ~$250m drops from the previous instalments in their respective series.

What bugs me about the talk about the box office returns is that people (reporters, bloggers, forum users, commenters) are somewhat gleefully talking about 'the death of the Transformers movie franchise', as if this result is somehow bad or a failure (and yes, I know that AoE brought in $1.1b). Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but are people calling War for the Planet of the Apes a commercial failure or crowing about Pirates 5's box office receipts being some kind of 'death knell'?

This sort of thing leaves me with a suspicion that there's some kind of anti-Transformers bias where anything that makes the franchise look bad must be 'good'.

[Deonasis]

^I think it has more to do with the quality of the movies and people losing faith in Michael Bay to make a great one despite all his assets. Without a mediocre (for the franchise) profit none of that would change with the movies. People are like this because they care about the future of Transformers–just the same as other people care.

My personal thoughts are Bay could shoot an amazing film but he would have to stick to an amazing script which he either hasn't had yet or hasn't had anyone make him stick to one.

[Magnus]

The exchange rate of the American dollar could have been a factor - Jerry Bruckheimer cited it as a reason Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales brought in less money from overseas markets. If it's true for Pirates, then it's true for other movies, too.

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/jerry-bruckheimer-thrilled-phenomenal-performance-pirates-5-talks-sequels-bad-boys-top-gun-150036081.html

[Ralph Wiggum]

Many of the poorly-reviewed big blockbusters this year have been box office disappointments - Transformers 5, The Mummy, Pirates 5, Valerian, King Arthur. The better received blockbusters like Wonderwoman, Spiderman and Baby Driver have done a lot better in the box office.

I think audiences are catching on and are only wanting to pay more for the cinema experience for something worth seeing. Piracy and the shorter cinema-to-home-video cycle further makes audiences more picky.