‘Transformers’: The Anatomy of a Cross-Platform Money Maker

This Variety article is a few weeks old, but now that Transformers: Age of Extinction has generated a whopping $597M in box office revenues worldwide in just 11 days and in the process become the highest-grossing movie ever in China, let’s take a gander at this particular cinematic phenomenon:

“Transformers: Age of Extinction” barrels into multiplexes June 27, hell-bent on global domination. With a pricetag north of $210 million after rebates, it’s one of the summer’s most expensive titles. But the action franchise is a cash cow for Paramount Pictures and Hasbro, with its armies of Decepticons and Autobots selling billions of dollars’ worth of movie tickets, DVDs, toys and videogames. The franchise’s worldwide success also demonstrates the increasingly global nature of the movie business. For “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” the most recent installment, China contributed a whopping $168.2 million to the bottom line. Philippe Dauman, head of Paramount parent Viacom, has already predicted part four will smash box office records. The new film keeps Michael Bay behind the camera, but trades up in star power, replacing Shia LaBeouf with Mark Wahlberg, with the hopes of kick-starting a new trilogy. Here’s a breakdown of all the ways money is being minted off of Optimus Prime and pals.

Here are some numbers for the four Transformers movies and their ancillary revenue:

Merchandising: $7B

Movies: $2.6B

Home Entertainment: $740M

Theme Parks: 50K riders per day

Actually it’s kind of a joke to refer to merchandising, home entertainment and theme park rides as “ancillary” revenue when combined, they amount to 3–4 times more income than what the movies generate at the box office.

And that explains why Hollywood is so obsessed with these type of franchise movies. If they work, they work really well, if not with critics, then in a big way with consumers and their dollars. Plus unless the filmmakers completely screw up, each sequel is virtually guaranteed to earn back at least 75% and often more than 100% of what the previous movie earned. And then there is this fact: 10 years down the road, the studio can reboot the entire franchise, or as with Sony remaking Spider-Man a mere 5 years after the original series ended.

So the next time you wander by the local multiplex theater and see that long line of young people waiting to see Transformers 6: Rage of Regurgitation, the numbers above will help you to understand why.

For the rest of the Variety article, go here.

Note: I’m pondering a post about whether the success of the Transformers franchise along with other big VFX-laden franchise movies is actually having an effect on the way screenwriters are approaching storytelling.

Comment Archive