Transformers One: Box Office Ratings and Analysis

September 20th, 2024 saw the release of the year’s most anticipated movies, two of them being ‘Transformers One’ and Tim Burton’s iconic ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’. Both movies have secured the lead against all the other movies currently running, with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice topping the ratings followed by Transformers One.

According to experts and movie critics, the Transformers franchise’s second-ever animated movie was expected to garner at least $30 million in its opening week, as deduced from the trailers released. However, it came as a huge disappointment when the movie gathered a soft $25 million at the domestic opening and a humble amount of only $14 million internationally against a budget of $75 million.

In stark comparison, Tim Burton’s latest Beetlejuice installment performed considerably well, staying number one on the charts, grossing a good $26 million on the opening weekend, and as of 23rd September’2024, has hauled in a grand amount of $329.7 million.

The two star-studded movies, one starring Chris Hemsworth, Scarlet Johannsen, and Keegan-Michael Key as the ensemble voice cast of the Transformers and the other presenting stellar actors and actresses, including Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, and the Wednesday grandee, Jenna Ortega, differ on various aspects and these particular characteristics are reflected in the box-office success of the two movies.

Let’s delve a bit deeper into both movies and unveil the nuances behind making the movies the box-office placeholders they are.

Transformers One: A Brief Analysis

The Plot

The recently released animated adventure, Transformers One features the arch-rivals Optimus Prime and Megatron, taking the viewers to visit their back story. The duo, ‘better known as sworn enemies‘ were once close brothers who together changed the fate of their planet, Cybertron.

The film introduces its audience to the mortal enemies’ duo, signaling that they were friends before they were enemies. It begins by portraying what Cybertron was like before the rise of the two Mega-Transformers (Optimus Prime and Megatron). The story effectively navigates the themes of racial segregation and discrimination through the stringent caste system that prevailed back at that time.

After the decimation of the Cybertron surface because of the war with the Qunitessons, the sentiment robots inhabit deep undergrounds of the Lacon City where they are starkly divided into two groups; those who have the cog ability to transform into vehicles are the ruling elite who are allowed the use of weaponry and those who do not possess this cog function are the labor class, forced to mine energon which once flowed undisrupted but then cryptically stopped after the Matrix of Leadership was lost in the historic battle.

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The Characters

The playful Orion Pax (later Optimus Prime, voiced by Chris Hemsworth) and his perpetually annoyed friend, D-16 (later Megatron, voiced by Brian Tyree Henry) are two labor robots, where the former dreams of becoming more than just his ‘designated station’ and the latter just focuses on his job to make his community foster collectively.

However, both of them always look out for each other, with D-16 covering for Pax as they set out on the journey to unveil secrets at the surface, in a desperate need to alter the current ruling landscape of their planet. What they discover at the surface is of crucial importance as it is everything that was kept hidden from them and it is the very event that alters their friendship bond, ultimately turning them into arch-enemies.

D-16 transforms into a spitting image of hatred and vengeance which Pax does notice but knows that he cannot put a barrage to emotions evolving as a result of a shattered belief system. The event is a critical turning point, not just in the film, but for the entire Transformers franchise as it helps discern the reason why the main leads are a certain way.

Underlying Themes

The most prominent characteristics that stand out during the film are the humanized features and emotions of the labor class, effectively allowing the audience to relate while simultaneously amplifying the class differences that are visible from the statures and machine bodies of the sentiment robots.

The ‘philosophical differences’ in the thinking directions of Pax and D-16 serve as the backdrop to the reactions of both robots respectively, where one evolved to become a hero and the other metamorphosed into a villain.

Although the film has not yet performed well at the box office, it has received commendable views from both, the audience and the critics. The commentators are loving the film, claiming it is the ‘best’ installment yet in the Transformers franchise.

Among the audience, the old fans can relate to several points in the story because of its great humor and the neophytes will admire it as well, with the characters being a depiction of teenagers, accompanied by the juvenile sense of fun, laughter, and ambition.

Transformers One review
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Box Office Performance

Despite a rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter and an overwhelmingly positive response from the critics, the opening of the film has not fared as well as expected, yet and several reasons may be responsible for it.

• After the 1980s first film of the Transformers franchise and a subsequent series of underperforming real-time action films, the fans were now expecting something more from the franchise. Many of them simply did not want an animated film which explains the lower-than-expected opening reception.
• Apart from that, the production did not perform well in marketing the film properly, to the level the installment required. With fabulous CGI effects and a riveting plot, the marketing strategy is what failed the film at the opening, by deterring fans and viewers alike by putting the film off as another children’s movie whereas it was much greater than that.
• Other than that, the theme’s major focus is the planet Cybertron, acquainting the audience with the tech planet and explaining its history. This theme did not suit very well with the audience as they were more interested in the tale of the robots than the planet’s history.

These reasons, gathered from various platforms and based on reviews from the general audience can serve to explain why the latest Transformers movie, despite being the best one so far, has not performed very well at the box office.

This however does not mean that the movie is a flop. It is expected to do much better now that the story has been unveiled and more and more fans and general audiences are gathering to watch it.

Other movies in the Transformers Universe

Conclusion

• The latest installment in the Transformers franchise, Transformers One was released in theatres on September 20th’2024.
• The movie did not fare as expected by the critics and the audience based on the trailers and secured the second spot in the Box Office openers, running only behind Beetlejuice.
• Audiences and critics alike love the film and most have rated it as the best in the entire Transformers franchise.
• Despite this popularity, on-point CGI effects, and a well-structured plot, the film underperformed at the box office because it may have disappointed fans with the animation or the Cybertron-centred plot.
• However, it was just the opening week and it is expected that the film will gross a handsome amount in the coming weeks.

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