The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming

Saturday, May 27th, 2017 12:22pm CDT

Categories: Movie Related News, Rumors
Posted by: Va'al Views: 30,172

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Discovering the wetness of water in economics terms, CNBC has published a short article / interview with Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore, discussing the international impact and importance for US-based productions. Specifically, Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers, which are both much bigger since their first release abroad than they are in domestic markets.

In addition, they also add that the Transformers franchise will be adding four more movies at least after The Last Knight - three (ish) of which we know about: Bumblebee, Cybertron, and potentially Ancient Rome. But we personally think the article is just speculating. What do you think? Let us know in the Energon Pub!

Dergarabedian said that international audiences, particularly in China, India and South America, still embrace these films because they grew up on big American blockbusters and enjoy the action-packed adventures.

"Action is the international language and that's what audiences really respond to," he said.

"The Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise isn't the only one that gets an international boost. The "Transformers" films have also been met by lackluster reviews and U.S. audience fatigue.

The fourth "Transformers" film, "Age of Extinction," which was released in 2014, garnered more than $858.6 million in international tickets. Domestically, its ticket sales for the full run of the film were about $245 million.

Dergarabedian attributed the film's international success not only to the action sequences, but the cast of Mark Wahlberg, an action movie star, and the fact that much of the film took place in a city in China. He said that international audiences like to see films set on a global stage

[...]

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Source: Disney
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

If you've looked at the movie listings this weekend, and asked yourself "Why is Disney making another 'Pirates of the Caribbean film?" you're not alone.

The fifth installment "Dead Men Tell No Tales" opens Friday in the U.S. With each new addition to the Pirates' franchise, the reviews have gotten worse and the U.S. audiences have shrunk. But overseas, fans are still enamored with Johnny Depp's swashbuckling portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow.

International markets have driven the majority of box office revenue for the "Pirates" franchise since the first film was released in 2003. At the box office "Curse of the Black Pearl" saw a pretty even split between U.S. and international ticket sales, but with each additional release, that gap has widened.

By the fourth film, "On Stranger Tides," more than 75 percent of box office revenue was earned overseas, a whopping $804.8 million.

For comparison, the film garnered $241 million in the U.S., less than the opening weekend gross of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

"U.S. audiences have been subjected to so many sequels over the decades that it is hard to maintain the excitement," Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore, told CNBC.

Despite the lackluster performances in the United States, two of the "Pirates" films have garnered more than $1 billion in total global ticket sales and one fell just shy of the mark with $962 million.

Dergarabedian said that international audiences, particularly in China, India and South America, still embrace these films because they grew up on big American blockbusters and enjoy the action-packed adventures.

"Action is the international language and that's what audiences really respond to," he said.

"The Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise isn't the only one that gets an international boost. The "Transformers" films have also been met by lackluster reviews and U.S. audience fatigue.

The fourth "Transformers" film, "Age of Extinction," which was released in 2014, garnered more than $858.6 million in international tickets. Domestically, its ticket sales for the full run of the film were about $245 million.

Dergarabedian attributed the film's international success not only to the action sequences, but the cast of Mark Wahlberg, an action movie star, and the fact that much of the film took place in a city in China. He said that international audiences like to see films set on a global stage.

"If you look at the numbers, international has to be at the forefront," Dergarabedian said. "Appealing to global audiences is the driving force."

That's why this summer a fifth "Transformers" film, "The Last Knight," will hit theaters.

While several cast members of the "Pirates" franchise have hinted that there could be more films in the future, the studio does not currently have any plans for a sixth installment.

"Transformers," on the other hand, is slated to release at least four more films after "The Last Knight," one of which will be a standalone "Bumblebee" movie set for release in 2018.

Transformers News: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming

Credit(s): CNBC

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Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901478)
Posted by Va'al on August 2nd, 2017 @ 5:11pm CDT

Remember the writers' room over at Paramount, where various names gathered to produce the future of the Transformers Universe, and The Last Knight specifically? And remember how it was headed by Akiva Goldsman? Well, it looks like the latter is no longer the case, according to SlashFilm.

When Paramount and Hasbro began laying the groundwork for a potential Transformers Cinematic Universe, they hired Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman to lead a writers room to expand the world. The first movie that resulted from that writers room was this summer’s Transformers: The Last Knight, with a Bumblebee standalone movie next in line.

Things got less certain in the lead-up to The Last Knight’s release, with both director Michael Bay and star Mark Wahlberg suggesting they were done with Transformers movies. Now, /Film has learned that Goldsman is done, too. Goldsman spoke with us at the Television Critics Association, where he was representing Star Trek: Discovery.

Asked if he was still involved with Transformers, Goldsman simply said, “No.”

A slightly longer, but not that much, response was given by producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, via Franchise Fred News (full story here):

“The writers room which was set up by all of us was set up to explore the mythology more,” Di Bonaventura explained. “It was set up for a few different reasons but the biggest thing that happened in it was they expanded the mythology of Transformers in a way that allowed us to go to King Arthur. There’s different areas, like we’ve examined World War II, etc.”

As for the state of the proposed Transformers extended universe, Di Bonaventura is focused on Bumblebee.

Does this change anything for you? Are you still interested in the rumoured Roman-era movie, Cybertron prequel, and more WWII action? Let us know in the Energon Pub discussion!

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901483)
Posted by Quantum Surge on August 2nd, 2017 @ 5:30pm CDT

It's a shame that Goldsman is no longer a part of the writers' board. Surely The Last Knight didn't reach many expectations for both fans and the studio, but I kind of feel that it's best to let TLK be the final main TF movie. This might sound weird, but I feel that with the series now being 10 years old, it's best to have the Bumblebee movie and the potential Cybertron prequel be the only movies so they can take us back full circle to the 2007 movie. After that, once the hype dies down, I feel that Hasbro could then make a reboot. (I have a couple of ideas that could make it stand out from other TF works, and it's neither like this series or a CG version of G1)

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901488)
Posted by SnoopDawg on August 2nd, 2017 @ 5:47pm CDT

Honestly, I'm glad Akiva Goldsman is out ... sure he may have an academy award and his screenplay also won an Oscar ... but he's just not fit for sci-fi/action movies. I remember The Last Knight getting all the hype when it was first teased with a trailer. Then comes release time and all the hype dies down due to reviews. The exact same thing is also happening with The Dark Tower which is going to be released this Friday. One of the more anticipated films of 2017 and days before it's release, there's not much hype due to early criticisms. I just hope this film is a reboot of some sorts so The Last Knight isn't cannon anymore. Otherwise, please let this movie franchise end ...

Edit: Goldsman also wrote Batman and Robin, so that's enough reason

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901493)
Posted by Barricade.it on August 2nd, 2017 @ 6:28pm CDT

I don't think TF is a dead movie franchise. I think they tried to bet on this reboot and they've lost. It's right that some heads fall.

Nevertheless, TF have still a great appeal even though a radical choice like TLK has seriously damaged it (though imho TLK is far better than AOE). The only way to give this franchise some new energy is to go back to the roots and guide things in their own place, without all the mess that has nothing to do with TFuniverse itself.

I think Bee Movie will have more success than TLK right because from the first news it appears this movie will do exacty this.

In other words: they should take courage and cancel TLK and AOE and let TFs be TFs.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901525)
Posted by kurthy on August 2nd, 2017 @ 10:31pm CDT

The biggest problem with the TFs movies is that my 9 year old hasn't seen one of the 5 movies. They aren't for little kids and they should work on getting kids back in the theater. He's grown up on g1, beast wars, prime, rescue bots and rid15 (also currently reading IDW) but has no interest in those movies and I have no interest in showing them to him.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901527)
Posted by Dagon on August 2nd, 2017 @ 10:44pm CDT

Well. There goes that quality cinematic universe, I guess. Back to bad scripts after the meisterwerk that was The Last Knight.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901539)
Posted by JazZeke on August 3rd, 2017 @ 12:22am CDT

Dagon wrote:Well. There goes that quality cinematic universe, I guess. Back to bad scripts after the meisterwerk that was The Last Knight.

Again, "Batman & Robin." I doubt quality was ever on the table.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901563)
Posted by Evil Eye on August 3rd, 2017 @ 4:47am CDT

After the dumpster fire that was TLK? Good.

To be honest, I think the writer's room was part of the problem. Too many cooks spoil the broth. TLK was a mess of a hundred potentially good ideas all crammed into one movie. Had it focused purely on the Knights/staff storyline, or the Autobots on the run, or the Decepticons getting out of prison, it might have worked. As is, having all those story threads and ideas running through one movie was a recipe for disaster. The only movies I've seen that pull off that amount of different subplots well have been Amelie and most Coen Brothers movies, and fairly obviously comparing those to Transformers is a silly idea.

If we do get a TF6 (not counting the spinoffs) hopefully it'll be a return to form- one or two writers at most, a straightforward but solid story and plenty of robot action with only the token amount of humans.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901568)
Posted by RAR on August 3rd, 2017 @ 5:23am CDT

I'm disappointed the Movie Press is pretty much ignoring The Last Knight - as there is some very odd things that seem to have happened with this Movie that made it go off the rails in some uniquely bizarre ways.

I can only really conclude that Bay just used the people complaining about them being to long to not finish his movie properly at all let alone just cut what was shot. It's clear that a whole lot of what he left in was filler and that other scenes are poorly explained - over-explained or not explained at all.

I don't think the usual problems all Transformers Movie share is going to be down to a reduced run time - they will be down to Bay being incapable of doing his job properly and Paramount being incapable of approving a script that makes sense.

People say the same thing again and again and they don't listen

People say
1) The screen is to dark (even worse in 3D) and you can't tell the characters apart (even the humans sometimes)
2) The framing of scenes is just wonky and disjointed with robots and sometimes people out of frame and it's just confusing to look at.
3) The Music is to generic and repetitive and self-reverential
4) Characters just disappear and also take actions that make no sense
5) Character are in the Movie who serve no purpose who's entire presence could be trimmed to 2 lines of dialgue and a saving of millions of dollars
6) Lack of Expert approval - any technical dialogue - is ALWAYS wrong - and often the visual are wrong too.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901569)
Posted by Va'al on August 3rd, 2017 @ 5:28am CDT

RAR wrote:I'm disappointed the Movie Press is pretty much ignoring The Last Knight - as there is some very odd things that seem to have happened with this Movie that made it go off the rails in some uniquely bizarre ways.

I can only really conclude that Bay just used the people complaining about them being to long to not finish his movie properly at all let alone just cut what was shot. It's clear that a whole lot of what he left in was filler and that other scenes are poorly explained - over-explained or not explained at all.

I don't think the usual problems all Transformers Movie share is going to be down to a reduced run time - they will be down to Bay being incapable of doing his job properly and Paramount being incapable of approving a script that makes sense.

People say the same thing again and again and they don't listen

People say
1) The screen is to dark (even worse in 3D) and you can't tell the characters apart (even the humans sometimes)
2) The framing of scenes is just wonky and disjointed with robots and sometimes people out of frame and it's just confusing to look at.
3) The Music is to generic and repetitive and self-reverential
4) Characters just disappear and also take actions that make no sense
5) Character are in the Movie who serve no purpose who's entire presence could be trimmed to 2 lines of dialgue and a saving of millions of dollars
6) Lack of Expert approval - any technical dialogue - is ALWAYS wrong - and often the visual are wrong too.

a) probably not the right thread
b) movie media is ignoring TLK? huh?

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901576)
Posted by Windsweeper on August 3rd, 2017 @ 5:47am CDT

Good riddance to Goldsman. After Batman and Robin, he and Schumacher should never have been left near another movie.

Same with Bay after Revenge of the Fallen.

If they do reboot the franchise I hope they stay away from horrible designs like Frenzy, Starscream, Ironhide, Wheelie, Reedman, the Twins, Jetfire, Brains, Que, Drift, Hound and Gecko. All of whom looked like rejects from the Robots movie and not Transformers.

Alien robots shouldn't have hair, buck teeth or samurai armour.

The comics work because they treat Transformers like proper sci fi and not bloody Harry Potter.

Except Barber who focuses too much on humans and gives us crap like the droid, Garrison Blackrock and Thundercracker's dog and should also be kept away from the Transformers.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901593)
Posted by Va'al on August 3rd, 2017 @ 7:01am CDT

Someone's happy today.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901621)
Posted by Palo_zfogs on August 3rd, 2017 @ 9:13am CDT

Windsweeper wrote:Good riddance to Goldsman. After Batman and Robin, he and Schumacher should never have been left near another movie.

Same with Bay after Revenge of the Fallen.

If they do reboot the franchise I hope they stay away from horrible designs like Frenzy, Starscream, Ironhide, Wheelie, Reedman, the Twins, Jetfire, Brains, Que, Drift, Hound and Gecko. All of whom looked like rejects from the Robots movie and not Transformers.

Alien robots shouldn't have hair, buck teeth or samurai armour.

The comics work because they treat Transformers like proper sci fi and not bloody Harry Potter.

Except Barber who focuses too much on humans and gives us crap like the droid, Garrison Blackrock and Thundercracker's dog and should also be kept away from the Transformers.

So you're saying you prefer the Reboot to have G1-looking characters literally?

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901627)
Posted by partholon on August 3rd, 2017 @ 9:31am CDT

i think things have worked out as well for the franchise as they can.

the films STILL making money, last i checked it was circa 570million worldwide so its made its production budget back so everyone gets paid.

and its been enough of a FLOP to merit a real reboot.

i hate to see something fail but it took batman and robin to get the dark knight made so hopefully despite TF5 being nowhere NEAR as bad as BnR itll serve as the launch pad for a "REAL" Transformers film wherein the characters actually look and act like their supposed to.

ive no prob with steering away from G1 - personally i'd love to see an adaptation of IDWs infiltration/escalation arc. but they NEED to get back to some core tropes.

the cons have to be proactive and an effective threat, the bots have to be on the backfoot before overcoming the odds. prime needs to act like prime and not bloody grimlock. ditto megatron needs to be scary because of who he IS and not what he looks like.

moreover they need a proper fecking reason to be on earth that isnt a mcguffin. i havent clue one why prime in the movieverse is dedicated to protecting humanity. in the comics it was simple- the cons being here was his fault. he crashed the ark into it.

if they dont want to go the ark route fine but gives us a fecking reason thats as good as that as to what their motivation is.

its ironic that TLK looks to be the one to cause all this as even some of the critics that hate whats bays done with these films concede its not the worst of them. i guess the REAL question now is with goldsman gone and the writers room in disarray WHO is gonna get handed this reboot task?

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901628)
Posted by SnoopDawg on August 3rd, 2017 @ 9:36am CDT

Windsweeper wrote:Good riddance to Goldsman. After Batman and Robin, he and Schumacher should never have been left near another movie.

Same with Bay after Revenge of the Fallen.

If they do reboot the franchise I hope they stay away from horrible designs like Frenzy, Starscream, Ironhide, Wheelie, Reedman, the Twins, Jetfire, Brains, Que, Drift, Hound and Gecko. All of whom looked like rejects from the Robots movie and not Transformers.

Alien robots shouldn't have hair, buck teeth or samurai armour.

The comics work because they treat Transformers like proper sci fi and not bloody Harry Potter.

Except Barber who focuses too much on humans and gives us crap like the droid, Garrison Blackrock and Thundercracker's dog and should also be kept away from the Transformers.

Who tf is Gecko? And besides, although I agree with you about the beards and stuff, Ironhide and Starscream are really cool designs.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901632)
Posted by william-james88 on August 3rd, 2017 @ 9:43am CDT

partholon wrote:i think things have worked out as well for the franchise as they can.

the films STILL making money, last i checked it was circa 570million worldwide so its made its production budget back so everyone gets paid.

Not really. Theatres take 50% of the revenue so that they can stay in business (they arent showing the film for free) so all the studio got back so far is at most 285 million, but more like 261 million (since its usually more like 46% that they get back). The film cost 217 million to produce but we dont know how much marketting cost. If marketting was more than 20 million, which I am sure it is, then there are still some people that havent gotten paid yet and the film might be in a deficit when all is said and done.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901646)
Posted by Sabrblade on August 3rd, 2017 @ 10:52am CDT

This is the best sum up of the films' criticisms I've seen:

Meanwhile the Bay films, separate from any "GEEWUN 4eva!" criticism are:
-heavily misogynistic and filled with creepy male gaze moments (usually on young/underage girl's bodies)
-filled with blatant military propaganda for some reason
-overly crude "humor" (if it was funny I *might* strike this from the list, but it's really not. It's like gross dad humor)
-have way too many racist moments (the correct amount to have would be ZERO)
-are extremely violent in a way that is inappropriate for Hasbro's main target demographic: children

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901648)
Posted by Evil Eye on August 3rd, 2017 @ 11:36am CDT

Sabrblade wrote:This is the best sum up of the films' criticisms I've seen:
Meanwhile the Bay films, separate from any "GEEWUN 4eva!" criticism are:
-heavily misogynistic and filled with creepy male gaze moments (usually on young/underage girl's bodies)
-filled with blatant military propaganda for some reason
-overly crude "humor" (if it was funny I *might* strike this from the list, but it's really not. It's like gross dad humor)
-have way too many racist moments (the correct amount to have would be ZERO)
-are extremely violent in a way that is inappropriate for Hasbro's main target demographic: children

Allspark is that way.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901653)
Posted by Sabrblade on August 3rd, 2017 @ 11:48am CDT

Black Hat wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:This is the best sum up of the films' criticisms I've seen:
Meanwhile the Bay films, separate from any "GEEWUN 4eva!" criticism are:
-heavily misogynistic and filled with creepy male gaze moments (usually on young/underage girl's bodies)
-filled with blatant military propaganda for some reason
-overly crude "humor" (if it was funny I *might* strike this from the list, but it's really not. It's like gross dad humor)
-have way too many racist moments (the correct amount to have would be ZERO)
-are extremely violent in a way that is inappropriate for Hasbro's main target demographic: children

Allspark is that way.

It's still valid criticism.

Re: The Importance of International Markets for Transformers, Plus Four More Allegedly Incoming (1901655)
Posted by Evil Eye on August 3rd, 2017 @ 12:02pm CDT

Sabrblade wrote:
Black Hat wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:This is the best sum up of the films' criticisms I've seen:
Meanwhile the Bay films, separate from any "GEEWUN 4eva!" criticism are:
-heavily misogynistic and filled with creepy male gaze moments (usually on young/underage girl's bodies)
-filled with blatant military propaganda for some reason
-overly crude "humor" (if it was funny I *might* strike this from the list, but it's really not. It's like gross dad humor)
-have way too many racist moments (the correct amount to have would be ZERO)
-are extremely violent in a way that is inappropriate for Hasbro's main target demographic: children

Allspark is that way.
It's still valid criticism.

Debatable. TLK was unbearable dreck but most of these complaints seem like the usual offendatron "It isn't made of Tumblr humour and bitching about slavery so it's bad REEEEEEEE" twaddle one would expect from a perpetually #triggered teenaged girl who's never experienced adversity in her life.

Seriously. Considering my mother enjoyed every movie that wasn't TLK (and the reason she disliked that one was the shoddy acting, terrible storyline and Izabella, AKA the worst human sidekick the franchise has seen in a while) I'd say these "criticisms" were made by someone who doesn't understand what actual racism or misogyny are and quite frankly needs a good slap.

Seriously, let's run through these:

Misogyny: Attractive women on screen do not a misogynist movie make. No.
Military propaganda: Ech. What is with these people and the virulent hatred for the people that keep them safe?
Overly crude "humour": Hardly a complaint that can't be levelled at the vast majority of hollywood attempts at humour. Plus, at least most of the humour in the Transformers movies were at least slightly funny.
Racism: No. Not even close. The Twins' characterization was A: created by Reno Wilson (who IS black) and B: was supposed to be a pisstake of "wiggers" AKA white teens who adopt sh!tty "gangsta" culture to look cool.
Violence: Nothing outside the age rating. Not every Transformers work of fiction is aimed at the same demographic. We have IDW feeding robot spines to other robots, and those comics are regarded as some of the best fiction in the franchise.

So yeah. Get that crap outta here.

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