Hard to say what’s more impressive about ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’s opening weekend, the fact that it made $301.3 million worldwide, $100 million in the US, or $90 million in China. Meanwhile, Shia Labeouf discovered he can talk to raccoons, so it sounds like everyone’s doing well. The China gross was a record for a foreign film opening in China (though it was a Chinese co-production). So, whatever you’ve heard about blockbusters increasingly try to cater to Asian tastes… if it wasn’t true yesterday, it will be tomorrow.
While critics didn’t like it (and don’t tell me critics never like mindless action, 72% of them liked ‘Pacific Rim’), the self-selected audience of people who wanted to see another almost three hours of ‘Transformers’ gave it a respectable A- cinemascore. And the audience was only 27% under 18, meaning the excuse that it’s meant for kids is now less than 27% true. ‘Transformers’ played 64% male and 58% 25 and older, meaning it would’ve been a great place to test out some kind of airborne sterilizing agent. Maybe hide it in the theater butter? Missed opportunity there, I have to think.
At this rate, there’s no way Paramount doesn’t make another sequel or three. ‘Transformers: The Final Chapter.’ ‘Transformers: The Final Chapte2.’ ‘Transformers: The 5inal Chapter.’ ‘Son of Transformers: First Class Part 7.’ They had to pull out dinobots and Mark Wahlberg to get people interested in this version, who knows where they’ll go with the next one. I’m sure there are a few experts out there with thoughts on what surprises the Transformers canon could hold, but probably none you’d ever want to talk to. Meanwhile, as luck would have it, we were actually able to obtain some exclusive footage of the next generation of Transformers:
Excited for what the future holds.
[via BoxOfficeMojo, Forbes, EntertainmentWeekly]