There’s a joke in Hollywood that only the last sequel of a movie series loses money, which if true, means there’ll certainly be another Transformers movie.
It happened in less than a month after it was released on June 29, but Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon is now officially the biggest movie in the Transformers series, although in practically one fell swoop it was beaten as biggest movie of the year by Harry Potter.
Still, making nearly $900 million world-wide sure ain’t chickenfeed.
Love him or hate him, many have felt from day one Michael Bay, with his own brand of explosive, non-stop action, and fast camerawork and editing, was the perfect director to bring Transformers to life, and back in 2005, Transformers executive producer Steven Spielberg agreed.
Although he’s certainly not the critics darling, Bay’s movies are almost always critic proof, and Transformers always had a big built in audience from day one.
For the series, Bay had the hot screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Alias, JJ Abrams’s Star Trek, Cowboys and Aliens) and Ehren Kruger (The Ring, Arlington Road) on his team, not to mention the producing star power of Spielberg.
“He really had a feel for this material,” Spielberg said. “He had a focused vision for what this franchise could look like as a movie.”
As the Hollywood Reporter writes, “Third time’s the charm for Paramount’s Transformers franchise,” and over the weekend of July 22 the film made $882.4 million worldwide, hitting the mark with a big boost from its premiere in China, earning it a $40 million weekend, and it should also make a lot of money when it opens in Japan on July 29.
The Reporter also confirms Transformers 3 has been earning more money overseas, “like other 2011 summer tentpoles,” and indeed the foreign market has grown huge for blockbusters as of late. Domestically Transformers 3 has done very well as well, making over $300 million in the States.
How does this compare to the other Transformers?
The first one made $709.7 million world-wide, part two, Revenge of the Fallen, made $836.3 million world-wide, and Dark of the Moon should come in even bigger once it’s all said and done.
