The last two Transformers movies made over a billion dollars each, despite the franchise dropping by nearly a third at the US box office. So it’s not a surprise Paramount and Hasbro want to keep making them forever. What is a surprise is just how many more they want to make.
Bay, talking to MTV about whether or not he’d leave the franchise he’s been planning to leave more or less since the first one, let it slip that there were “fourteen stories written” and that he was mulling directing one of them. Of course, this could simply be that they have fourteen ideas and will pick the best ones. But considering the fifth one is in theaters this summer and Paramount already has release dates blocked out for the sixth and seventh that indicate they want one every June, it’s not out of the realm of possibility they really will want fourteen of these things.
Could the Transformers become that Hollywood holy grail, the perpetual franchise? That’s a good question. As we noted, the majority of the franchise’s money comes from the rest of the world at this point: Here in America, we’re only to blame for about 20% of Transformers: Age Of Extinction‘s $1.1 billion gross. So really as long as the Chinese economy is OK, we’ll have giant robots in theaters every June.
(via io9)
