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Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films

Posted by william-james88 Aug 1, 2023 at 6:31pm CDT 63,780 views
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With a lot of news to get through, we wanted to share this great interview from Variety with the CEO of Paramount, Brian Robbins. While this interview covers all the Paramount films, it does give us some incite on Transformers Rise of the Beasts. The CEO points out that the film did not do great and that the main reason they attribute is the big budget which blew up due to COVID along with reduced income from Russia (who used to be the 6th biggest market for these films) and a major underperformance in China (which only bought half the tickets expected by Paramount).

But the major part that all trades, and us, are taking away from this interview is the confirmation that Michael Bay still has a hold on the Transformers film franchise. All major decisions still have to go through him and he has the ability to veto them. We learn that for Paramount to include GI Joe in the film, they needed the ok from Michael Bay. And Bay was hesitant at first since he thought merging the two brands would cheapen the Transformers films, but he did eventually sign off on it.

Bay’s approval was tricky, because he was worried that merging the series would cheapen the other “Transformers” movies. “I called him 50 times,” Robbins says. “I would not let him off the hook. And when he finally stopped dodging my calls, we got him to sign off.”

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Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by Quantum Surge Aug 1, 2023
A bit off-topic (aside from the photo being used), but Elena smiling with the Bay Films text in the credits confirms she is a fan of his movies and no one can convince me that it's not canon.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by Randomhero Aug 1, 2023
I’ve literally lost count of many of these pointless articles this site has written about how Rise the beasts didn’t perform well
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by william-james88 Aug 1, 2023
Randomhero wrote:I’ve literally lost count of many of these pointless articles this site has written about how Rise the beasts didn’t perform well


I'm like to write an article about its opening numbers in Japan, since fans are curious and it's been brought up a lot. Should I only publish that article if the film performs well in Japan?
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by chuckdawg1999 Aug 1, 2023
Randomhero wrote:I’ve literally lost count of many of these pointless articles this site has written about how Rise the beasts didn’t perform well


Will and the rest of the staff can only work with what they have. I know you'd like it to be wall to wall reviews by yours truly but that can't happen. The success or lack thereof correlates directly to how the brand will be perceived going forward which is important and could be used to explain why store A cuts their transformers section in half.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by cloudballoon Aug 1, 2023
william-james88 wrote:I'm like to write an article about its opening numbers in Japan, since fans are curious and it's been brought up a lot. Should I only publish that article if the film performs well in Japan?


For me weekend box office updates are appreciated. But the pessimistic tone is a little heavy though bth.

Sure ROTB performs below expectations, and might be a loser for Paramount at the box office at the end of the day. But digital/physical media will play a bigger ratio for ROTB than any previous movies in recuperating costs because I bet more fans want to stream it than watch at the cinema nowadays. I am one of them. But I'm an outlier from the start as I can count on one hand how may times I go to the theatre in a year (my wife doesn't care about dumb blockbusters, nor I).

But in terms of pure losses, ROTB can't be worst than the DC/Marvels/Indy. It's jsut a weird movie year.

But that full script post... man... that a buzz killer IMO.

And besides, Box office numbers isn't that big a deal anyway. Profitable? Great! Paramount lost money on a film? Tax writeoff! AND (hopefully) lesson learned!
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by william-james88 Aug 1, 2023
cloudballoon wrote:
william-james88 wrote:I'm like to write an article about its opening numbers in Japan, since fans are curious and it's been brought up a lot. Should I only publish that article if the film performs well in Japan?


For me weekend box office updates are appreciated. But the pessimistic tone is a little heavy though bth.

Sure ROTB performs below expectations, and might be a loser for Paramount at the box office at the end of the day. But digital/physical media will play a bigger ratio for ROTB than any previous movies in recuperating costs because I bet more fans want to stream it than watch at the cinema nowadays. I am one of them. But I'm an outlier from the start as I can count on one hand how may times I go to the theatre in a year (my wife doesn't care about dumb blockbusters, nor I).

But in terms of pure losses, ROTB can't be worst than the DC/Marvels/Indy. It's jsut a weird movie year.

But that full script post... man... that a buzz killer IMO.

And besides, Box office numbers isn't that big a deal anyway. Profitable? Great! Paramount lost money on a film? Tax writeoff! AND (hopefully) lesson learned!


Thanks, I really appreciate your post. And Chuck, the next news to be posted will be more to your taste.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by chuckdawg1999 Aug 2, 2023
cloudballoon wrote:
william-james88 wrote:I'm like to write an article about its opening numbers in Japan, since fans are curious and it's been brought up a lot. Should I only publish that article if the film performs well in Japan?


For me weekend box office updates are appreciated. But the pessimistic tone is a little heavy though bth.

Sure ROTB performs below expectations, and might be a loser for Paramount at the box office at the end of the day. But digital/physical media will play a bigger ratio for ROTB than any previous movies in recuperating costs because I bet more fans want to stream it than watch at the cinema nowadays. I am one of them. But I'm an outlier from the start as I can count on one hand how may times I go to the theatre in a year (my wife doesn't care about dumb blockbusters, nor I).

But in terms of pure losses, ROTB can't be worst than the DC/Marvels/Indy. It's jsut a weird movie year.

But that full script post... man... that a buzz killer IMO.

And besides, Box office numbers isn't that big a deal anyway. Profitable? Great! Paramount lost money on a film? Tax writeoff! AND (hopefully) lesson learned!


I was having this conversation with my sister the other day, I really think the fall is going to be surprising as these summer flicks do gangbusters on streaming.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by Brokebot Aug 2, 2023
"Bay was hesitant at first since he thought merging the two brands would cheapen the Transformers films"

That's comedy gold right there.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by Dinobot4ever Aug 2, 2023
Brokebot wrote:"Bay was hesitant at first since he thought merging the two brands would cheapen the Transformers films"

That's comedy gold right there.


This :APPLAUSE:
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by Acevolts Aug 3, 2023
Try as they might this movie could not get me, a diehard Transformers fan, into a seat. I'm hoping this movie's mediocre performance will lead to Paramount and Hasbro reevaluating this franchise and making a movie that's a little closer to the source material, with less of an emphasis on Bayformers-brand humor and fancy cars.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by william-james88 Aug 4, 2023
So the movie opened 4th place in Japan.
I think this is newsworthy. BUT, it's also not good news. So if I write an article, will people still come at me for being a debbie downer? I don't really care for this whole walking on eggshells things when trying to create informative content to keep the community in the loop.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by TulioDude Aug 4, 2023
william-james88 wrote:So the movie opened 4th place in Japan.
I think this is newsworthy. BUT, it's also not good news. So if I write an article, will people still come at me for being a debbie downer? I don't really care for this whole walking on eggshells things when trying to create informative content to keep the community in the loop.


Report the headline and news as it is and let the people reach thier own conclusions.

Seibertron as site, doesnt cover all the of Transformers news, even with the submit new feature, which is okay, this is only a fan site after all. It just sometimes feels that whoever is writing has already reached a conclusion on how they feel about the subject and that shows on they approach it.

The recent Brian Robbins interview is a good example of that, where he talks about a lot of what's going on with Paramount and its movies but the headline is framed as a Michael Bay news.

If the writer wants to shara their views, they can make a separate comment.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by cloudballoon Aug 4, 2023
william-james88 wrote:So the movie opened 4th place in Japan.
I think this is newsworthy. BUT, it's also not good news. So if I write an article, will people still come at me for being a debbie downer? I don't really care for this whole walking on eggshells things when trying to create informative content to keep the community in the loop.


Like I said, I appreciates the news. It's food for thought. Report on facts and numbers and let people decide what they take from it. Maybe put the facts at the top of the article, and personal opinion/analysis after might work better for some people? Still, it's kinda unnecessary to get personal on attacking the reporter.

Those that really don't like the Debbie Downer part? They're welcome to not read anything with ROTB movie in the headline.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by william-james88 Aug 4, 2023
Thanks guys, much appreciated.

TulioDude wrote:
william-james88 wrote:So the movie opened 4th place in Japan.
I think this is newsworthy. BUT, it's also not good news. So if I write an article, will people still come at me for being a debbie downer? I don't really care for this whole walking on eggshells things when trying to create informative content to keep the community in the loop.


Report the headline and news as it is and let the people reach thier own conclusions.

Seibertron as site, doesnt cover all the of Transformers news, even with the submit new feature, which is okay, this is only a fan site after all. It just sometimes feels that whoever is writing has already reached a conclusion on how they feel about the subject and that shows on they approach it.

The recent Brian Robbins interview is a good example of that, where he talks about a lot of what's going on with Paramount and its movies but the headline is framed as a Michael Bay news.

If the writer wants to shara their views, they can make a separate comment.


Yes, great example with the Brian Robbins interview. And that was me as well. Sadly, writing "Paramount CEO talks about Movie Performances and future of the brands" gets almost no attention. So while I didnt really give a personal take on it, I did go with that I found to be the most interesting tidbit to start a more stimulating conversation. A lot of fans were wondering how much power Bay had over ROTB and the franchise as a whole and this was finally good evidence of that with a concrete and practical example.

A lot of other media sites focused on that tidbit, they probably found it most interesting too. It's anecdotle as opposed to corporate speak, which we always seem to appreciate more.

Image
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by Brokebot Aug 4, 2023
william-james88 wrote:will people still come at me for being a debbie downer?



Wouldn't that be a Decepti-downer? A Dead Ender?
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by ZeroWolf Aug 4, 2023
Not surprised at where ROTB landed at in Japan, again, extremely bad timing.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by cloudballoon Aug 4, 2023
ZeroWolf wrote:Not surprised at where ROTB landed at in Japan, again, extremely bad timing.


Is it really 100% "bad timing" or was Paramount soundly beat at the Box office by its rivals with better products though? IIRC Paramount was gun-ho being the first studio to reserve that time block to premiere? Then its rivals came, saw, and was like "Sure... I'm afraid of no ROTB." I think bad strategy played a bigger role than just blame on "bad timing."

I meant ZERO disrepect, but Paramount gave ROTB to a relatively inexperienced director in Caple Jr., nor have any big-star power lead actors. (To be clear, I don't mind Caple Jr. grow in his directorship role, and the leads are fine, they're both charming & competent for the blockbuster action movie)

If I was Paramount, given its already shaky financial situation, I'd go for a repeat of BBM: smaller budget & scope (again, Caple Jr. bit waaaay more than he could chew, adding plots & characters into his first TF movie like there's no tomorrow and just wanted to see too much TF stuffs on screen but ended up dorpping many of these films & CGI, wasting budget), and stay away from head-to-head competition from DC/Marvels.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by ZeroWolf Aug 4, 2023
Don't forget that the producers and writers share some of this. They had a story ready before the director was chosen. I also wouldn't be surprised if Hasbro had a list of characters who were going to appear at the ready so they could get to the real event for them...("Merchandising, Merchandising! Where the real money from the movie is made!" ... I may have watched that film too many times)
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by First-Aid Aug 4, 2023
cloudballoon wrote:
ZeroWolf wrote:Not surprised at where ROTB landed at in Japan, again, extremely bad timing.


Is it really 100% "bad timing"


At this point, absolutely. They released it in Japan three weeks after it was released on digital. That may be among the stupidest business decisions in history. That said, the digital numbers are going to be a factor in this.
Re: Paramount CEO Confirms Michael Bay still has Absolute Power over the Transformers Films (view post)
Comment by cloudballoon Aug 4, 2023
First-Aid wrote:
cloudballoon wrote:
ZeroWolf wrote:Not surprised at where ROTB landed at in Japan, again, extremely bad timing.


Is it really 100% "bad timing"


At this point, absolutely. They released it in Japan three weeks after it was released on digital. That may be among the stupidest business decisions in history. That said, the digital numbers are going to be a factor in this.


My comment was meant for the US/Canada "Domestic" numbers. But you're right for Japan. I'm sure Paramount wanted to boost Paramount+ subs with such an early digital release for ROTB and some other reasons or another (perhaps making way for MI:DRp1, also a Paramount pictures), but that resulted in a big midlle finger for other regions that haven't had a theatre run yet.
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