by william-james88 » Sun Jun 11, 2023 11:21 pm
- Motto: "'till All Are One"
It was a tight race but Transformers has claimed the number 1 box office spot for this week-end, both domestically and internationally. Domestically, it got 60 Million dollars compared to Spider-verse's 55 Million. However, it should be stated that Spider-verse outperformed Transformers during the actual week-end. The reason why Transformers ends up on top is due to the earlier showings during the week. The film also made 110 Million internationally (so everywhere other than the US and Canada) which gives it 170 Million in total. Also please note that it made 40 M in China showing that it's still a big market for the brand (however, Paramount/Hasbro see only 25% of revenue from Chinese theatres).
While these numbers aren't amazing as they once were, remember that Dark of the Moon opened to 97 M domestically, the numbers do show that whatever stain there may have been in the past which lead to disappointing returns for The Last Knight and Bumblebee might be in the past. The domestic numbers are 3 times what they were for Bumblebee 5 years ago, proving that there is still a a demand from these films, and not just from fans. The reason these numbers surpass industry estimates is due to the higher number of tickets that were bought on the spot in proportion to presale tickets (which are largely purchased by fans), when compared to Super-hero movies. This means that Transformers really is in a league of its own, appealing to general movie goers rather than simply being backed by a big fanbase. And that happens to be exactly what Paramount was going for, with it's vague sense of continuity and choosing to not distance themselves too much from familiarity and the live action movie brand and aesthetic.
Another really important point is that the diversity angle did pay off. The film did heavily market its inclusion of people of colour and the breakdown of ticket sales shows that, domestically, it was people identifying as Hispanic which made up the largest viewership. This has never happened before for a Transformers film. Here is a full breakdown:
32% Hispanic
31% Caucasian
21% Black
16% Asian/Other
While this is all good news, no one can predict how the Flash will perform next week. Next week's box office performance will let us have a better idea of how strong this film's box gross can be and we'll keep you up to date on it.
