‘Transformers One’ Upset By ‘Beetlejuice’ At Box Office
Paramount Animation’s Transformers One, the first fully-animated Transformers pic in nearly 40 years, opened with a middling $25 million (estimated), coming in second behind Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which edged in front with $26m over its third weekend.
The result is a disappointment for Paramount, especially since a race had never anticipated between its new animated film and a weeks-old live-action pic. Paramount and production partner Hasbro had been targeting a launch in the neighborhood of $30 to $40 million for the movie. The soft opening might sting even more for the film’s director Josh Cooley, whose last film Toy Story 4 enjoyed an opening weekend debut of over $120 million.
Transformers One is distributor Paramount’s only theatrical animation release of 2024. It launched two other toy-centric movies last year – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which opened with $28m, and Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie, which debuted with $22.7m.
Transformers One’s soft launch in the U.S. was mirrored internationally too, with the pic picking up just $14m from 50 territories, again less than anticipated. Top markets abroad were Mexico ($2.2m), Australia ($1.5m), and Japan ($820,000). Overall, the global launch weekend (including the U.S.) totalled just $39m.
Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura had said in interviews that he hoped the film would spawn a trilogy, but weak demand for this first installment could give pause to ambitious franchise plans for the future.
For Hasbro, the goal of the movie was simply to sell more toys, and it very well could be successful in that aim. Earlier this year, Hasbro chief Chris Cocks was optimistic about the movie’s potential impact on toy sales, saying, “Every indication we have from early screenings and tracking is that that movie is going to be a real fan favorite, with some nice legs in families. We think it will sell a lot of toys, as Transformers movies tend to have done.”
In a handful of countries, Transformers One went up against another robot pic, Universal and Dreamworks Animation’s exceptional The Wild Robot, which began its international rollout this past weekend. For example, in Australia, Wild Robot launched with $2m, ahead of Transformers One. China was The Wild Robot’s top location, with a $4m launch. Per Deadline, the film has “a 9.6 on both Maoyan and TPP, the best scores ever for the studio on any of its titles in the market.”
In total, the Chris Sanders-directed Wild Robot started with $6.8m from eight territories. It opens this coming Friday in the U.S. with a staggered international release that will stretch throughout the month of October.
