The Energon Pub

News Credits: 730 · Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:19 pm

Dutch movie site MovieAlert.com has added all the figures together and came to the following conclusion. Because of his work on the Transformers Movie, Michael Bay has become only the 13th person in movie making history to be part of the Director's Billion Dollar Club. With the boxoffice results Transformers has made thus far, added to what his previous movies, including Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys, has made domestically, Michael Bay's movies (as a director) have now collectively made over a billion dollars. Other movie directors in the Billion Dollar Club include George Lucas, Chris Columbus, Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi, Robert Zemeckis, Tim Burton, James Cameron, with Steven Spielberg leading the pack.

News Credits: 972 · Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:25 pm

I feel all empty and hollow inside, knowing I helped Michael Bay join such an elite club...

News Credits: 226 · Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:39 pm

i_amtrunks wrote:I feel all empty and hollow inside, knowing I helped Michael Bay join such an elite club...

Deeper down in that pit of emptyness ... you enjoyed doing it.

News Credits: 4 · Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:43 pm

I like most of Bay´s films. The Rock and Armageddon and now Transformers are in my top 10 favourite movies. 2,4 and 8 places.

Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:50 pm

bay was in the billion dollar club before he made transformers. hes was the youngest director to reach the billion dollar club

Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:02 pm

yay bay

News Credits: 8 · Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:07 pm

I like most of bays movies(except pearl harbor. that movie sucked.) but i feel that this will just inflate his ego even more now. And thats something no one needs to deal with.

News Credits: 8 · Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:15 pm

Now maybe his undeserved reputation as a hack will be over.

Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:15 pm

holy... sh*t... well, my friends, we have only ourselves to blame for such a blasphemous and unholy occurance... this will surely usher in the age of the great apocalypse upon humankind...

Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:16 pm

Megatron_Wolf wrote:I like most of bays movies(except pearl harbor. that movie sucked.) but i feel that this will just inflate his ego even more now. And thats something no one needs to deal with.

Yeahm, Pearl Harbor was horrible.

News Credits: 226 · Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:50 pm

Nemesis_Apoc wrote:holy... sh*t... well, my friends, we have only ourselves to blame for such a blasphemous and unholy occurance... this will surely usher in the age of the great apocalypse upon humankind...

No no, that happens when Uwe Boll joins the club.

Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:01 pm

I get a mulligan for Bad Boys 1 (Bay had yet to give his soul to Satan at that point)...I did pay for the Rock which Bay produced so I'm still safe...I didn't pay for Transformers, told my friend either he paid or I'd never see it so that's not in my pocket...Watched Pearl Harbor on DVD and never saw the Island, So I gave Bay a grand total of approx. 8 bucks as a director...

So yeah I deserve death...

Edit: Damn he did direct "The Rock", thought that was Brukheimer...$hit I kinda liked that one...He produced ConAir which I really liked..So I gave Bay 16 bucks...I don't deserve an afterlife for admitting this...

News Credits: 668 · Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:05 pm

Whether or not you like his work, you have to give Bay credit for the following:

1.) He's a hell of a hard worker. He does put the work and time in.

2.) His movies are entertaining to the masses. Not every movie fits every audience, but all of his movies have entertained at least some people.

3.) He knows what he's doing. It's not just the director at fault when a movie sucks, it's the writers and the producers as well.

It's the old "too many cooks in the kitchen..." too many people changing, correcting, editing, etc and when it's all said and done, the movies are chopped. (TF is proof of this.)

The most glaring examples of chopped movies are: Highlander 2: The Quickening (the movie was taken from a little over 120 minutes and chopped (mercilessly) to 90 minutes.

And Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (anyone who's ever watched it on DVD saw there's a piece of footage not seen in the theaters, and when watched on TV, pieces from the theatrical and DVD versions are cut and new footage never seen is added in it's place.)

For Highlander, it was the producers and payroll for the movie studio that horrendously cut the film. For Ace, it was the director himself who felt the movie didn't need the pieces. (He was wrong, but he did it.)

So don't always blame Bay for how a movie is, it's not just his neck in the noose.

Armageddon was visually entertaining (the worldwide damage shots, and special effects were fantastic, so were the stunts.) but the story really really lacked. He didn't pen it, someone else did. It's not his fault that the script was hollow.

Same with TransFormers...sure, Rogers, Kurtzman and Orci could've made something deeper (especially after reading the leaked script from '06) but without Bay's input, the movie wouldn't have been nearly as long as it was (which was actually a good thing that it clocked in at 2.5 hours, had it been shorter, it would've been overkill and too much to process.) and it wouldn't have had the new pieces to the story that we never saw in the original script.

Bay added to it, not detracted from it. He did a fine job of directing it, he just could've done without the shaky cam crap.

Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:07 pm

wingdarkness wrote:I get a mulligan for Bad Boys 1 (Bay had yet to give his soul to Satan at that point)...I did pay for the Rock which Bay produced so I'm still safe...I didn't pay for Transformers, told my friend either he paid or I'd never see it so that's not in my pocket...Watched Pearl Harbor on DVD and never saw the Island, So I gave Bay a grand total of approx. 8 bucks as a director...

So yeah I deserve death...

i have all of bays films including his 2 criterion collection. shall i came with you?

News Credits: 668 · Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:13 pm

Mr.RobotAutoMan wrote:
wingdarkness wrote:I get a mulligan for Bad Boys 1 (Bay had yet to give his soul to Satan at that point)...I did pay for the Rock which Bay produced so I'm still safe...I didn't pay for Transformers, told my friend either he paid or I'd never see it so that's not in my pocket...Watched Pearl Harbor on DVD and never saw the Island, So I gave Bay a grand total of approx. 8 bucks as a director...

So yeah I deserve death...

i have all of bays films including his 2 criterion collection. shall i came with you?

That's an absolute bullsh*t view. If that were true, people wouldn't even be allowed in the basement of Hell just for watching Uwe Boll's films.

You're fine watching, enjoying, and owning Bay films. People just like to sit on their high horse and look down on others. Problem is, there's always someone who's higher up, so that means all of these bitchers have their faces firmly planted in the horse's ass.

Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:23 pm

Soundwave: "Bay apologists eject!"
@Autobot032 -
Dude I'm not about to get into another argument, worship Bay all you like I don't have the energy...

I don't own one Bay film...But what's funny is while I never liked Bay, his dealings with Transformers is what made me loathe him...His arrogance and down-right contempt for anyone who questions anything he does made me feel this way...The way he steamrolled over ILM and company for his Bayformers made me lose respect I didn't even have for him...I acknowledge his success, but he still makes the most generic movies I've ever seen in my life...But like I said I liked Bad boys 1 and The Rock...Guess it helped I was teenager and I made out with my GF during both movies...

ALright I lied I made out just during the Rock, I actually was into Bad Boys 1 because Martin was at the height of his career then...

Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:29 am

Good for him, he have along way to go.

News Credits: 4 · Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:42 am

Is that article referring to domestic box office only? If that's the case, then the article is right.

If it's referring to international box office results, then it is wrong. Previous to Tranformers, Bay's films had made somehwere around 2 billion worldwide.

Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:49 am

Having paid for Ratatouille to see Bay's latest effort to hold a camera (you know, an ILM friend says Bay can't even get insurance for his cameras because he breaks so many) I feel no sorrow, only pity. Maybe when he screws over the Dinobots and introduces Arcee (voiced by Halle Barry) people will come round. "Me Grimlock say 'Wus up lil' bitches?'"

Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:50 am

nelson_michaelbay_com wrote:Is that article referring to domestic box office only? If that's the case, then the article is right.

If it's referring to international box office results, then it is wrong. Previous to Tranformers, Bay's films had made somehwere around 2 billion worldwide.

thats what i said. his other films reached the billion dollar mark. before he started working with transformers

Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:52 am

SoooTrypticon wrote:Having paid for Ratatouille to see Bay's latest effort to hold a camera

Is that supposed to be impressive or something?

News Credits: 1 · Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:52 am

SoooTrypticon wrote:Having paid for Ratatouille to see Bay's latest effort to hold a camera (you know, an ILM friend says Bay can't even get insurance for his cameras because he breaks so many) I feel no sorrow, only pity. Maybe when he screws over the Dinobots and introduces Arcee (voiced by Halle Barry) people will come round. "Me Grimlock say 'Wus up lil' bitches?'"

Ahh, get off your high horse. It's not a 'flaw' to enjoy the movie, as 'coming around' would imply.

Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:02 am

wingdarkness wrote:The way he steamrolled over ILM and company for his Bayformers made me lose respect I didn't even have for him.

Dude, what are you talking about? In fact, what is anyone who uses the term "Bayformers" talking about? Do you honestly think that Bay designed the Transformers himself? Oh, suddenly inbetween directing, editing, and all of the other stuff he does he suddenly learned how to be a graphic artist? Give me a break! ILM designed the Transformers, all Bay ever did was say in an interview that he wanted the Transformations to be "kinetic" with "hundreds of parts moving all at once". And who knows, that might not have even been his idea, maybe the studio came up with that idea or maybe Speilberg, or maybe some kid at ILM. You don't know. What I do know is that Bay DID NOT design the Transformers himself so don't blame him because you didn't like the designs, ILM showed him some designs, he liked him, you can't really fault him for that. Lots of other people (myself included) like them too.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Pepsimus · Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:15 am

What would be wrong with Halle Berry voicing Arcee, hmm? You don't want an academy award winner doing her voice? Or is it because she's...

Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:36 am

Bay's movies may not be deep thinkers, but then neither are the most of the rest of those people in the club (and if one person comes to me and say Georgie Lucas, I'm going to bean in the back of the head with a copy of Episode 1). Simple fact is Bay's over-the-top approach has got him where he is. And the simple fact is, a part of being a director is to do the kinds of things that Bay does. As a director, you have to know what you want, and then go for it. And before it's said, I'm not a Bay Apologists, so you can shove that one. In fact, I don't even like half his movies. I dislike Armageddon, never bothered with Pearl Harbor, the Rock...is tolerated, and I hate Bad Boys with a freakin' passion. Even Will Smith couldn't make up for the sheer SUCK that is Martin Lawrence. There, I said it. But the simple fact is I dislike these movies, not because of Bay, but because...well, it's freakin' Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and Bad Boys...how many explanations do you need?