So at this point, I've heard excuses from supporters of the film about how AoE's performance numbers in realistic as-actually-important-to-Hasbro-and-Paramount terms that the actual barely sufficent profit at the worldwide box office was due to a "down" year of movies, and now that the toy line tanking was because it was a "down" year of toys?

The movie's job was to advertise the damn plastic robots, so no matter how you look at it, the fact it did worse than Animated's toyline run really says how bad AoE turned out when all was said and done.

 

We haven't had new episodes in about 10 years so that seems long enough to build up some nostalgia for Megas XLR and kids who watched it back then should be in that prime film demographic by now. The Wiki page makes it seem like the creators want to do something with it so I'm guessing it's just that enough people in Hollywood don't see the potential.

Cool car, hot chick, giant robot, how does that not say money to a studio?

 

First off: By what measure (or more importantly, what numbers) are you using to justify that the toyline "tanked" or did worse than Animated?

Because if you're simply using Hasbro's product output...you're using really skewed data that doesn't reflect changes across the entire action figure market.

 

I suppose you could say that. Or you could look at actual numbers and see that 2014 was an off year across the board for toys and movies. And are you really trying to compare a line from a show that was on for three years to a single movie?

 

I don't want a Robotech movie.

Now, if the rights truly are cleared up, a live-action Macross flick, produced by the original creators would be groovy. I can get behind that.

 

I think you're mistaken. Corporations don't spend 200+ million on social experiments.

 

I think we need to look at why it was a off year for movies. Domestically American Sniper made $348 million, Mockingjay part 1 made $337 million, Guardians of the Galaxy made $333 million for three films that broke the $300 million mark. 2013 you had 4 films that exceeded $300 million. So it seems that if a studio puts out a film people want to see then people are still willing to open their wallet for a movie ticket.

My theory is that the box office was down mainly because Hollywood wasn't putting out the sort of movies people could get excited about and the make everything appear dark, grim, and gritty isn't the box office draw it once was.

 

Or I could point out I've been using Hasbro's data from 2013, which has rough estimates of how well the franchise had been doing to that point:



And that the most recent toyfair/investor slides from two months ago only mention wide, general growth of all brands in the emerging global markets and nothing about Transformers in terms of AoE's performance in the toy asiles.

Plus, if AoE's toyline had made more money than Animated, which by default would also be more than Prime according to that chart, wouldn't Hasbro want to use that clear sign of profitability to their advantage instead of vaguely sidesteping any notion of specifying how a certain individual brand was really doing after its most recent movie installment?

Inflation of movie ticket prices all around probably are resulting in lower ticket sales on average as well - Furious 7 aside, no film released this year (well, ok, besides the impending Avengers AOU release in the US, but that's a given) has gotten close to $700 million worldwide.

Yeah, the trend of cup-half-empty feeling films really is kind of boring at this point - sure, you can fault the humor in the first film, but back then you had things like "Satan's Camaro is stalking me," "Are you the tooth fairy?" and pretty much anything Epps ever said in any of the films.

I'm sure that a reboot where there's a smart, subtle sense of humor that serves to remind the audience that 'this is a movie about alien robot cars beating the shit out of one another so don't take it to seriously' along with both Autobots and Decepticons getting healthy amounts of character buildup time, would do great. Because that sounds like a fun film.

 

makes me wonder on how the fate Shoji Kawamori's Valkyrie fighters designs would end up or his reaction to the movie, if it exists of course, that along with Bandai's marketing plans.

they can't use Mospeada & Southern Cross designs right? or they still can?

 

In the 10 years or more I've been following Hasbro, I've only seen them actually show that data TWICE, and the 2013 slide was the first I can remember with REAL numbers attached.
Hasbro RARELY cites specific brand numbers in any of its investor calls (because their business is more than just Transformers), and again, I don't see any real evidence the line tanked at all. In fact, Hasbro cited First Quarter gain largely on solid sales and licensing revenue oriented around Transformers.

And more importantly, the "proof is in the pudding", so to speak: if AoE had been this massive failure, you would not see retailers continue to support the brand as heavily as it still is (my observation is that the brand so almost no significant loss of retail space in most markets), and you certainly wouldn't see enough retail support for Hasbro to justify 4 (or more) leader class figures, a $150 Titan release, or a $50 One Step Bumblebee in the same year.


(Plus, the data on 2008 is a bit skewed: Hasbro highlighted Animated as the primary media focus that year, but sales were assuredly boosted by the back end TF1 movie line and the launch of the Universe line, so that number does not reflect SOLELY the sales of Transformers Animated product. And the sales were likely boosted thanks to goodwill on the brand thanks to the movie.)

 

Interesting, you seem to have a better understanding of what Hasbro does with the investor slideshow presentations and the related data than I had inferred based on raw assumptions.

And I will admit that maybe my word choice was a bit strong with the idea behind what "tanked" really means. To me, it just seemed like the whole AoE line wasn't doing so hot because to much focus was put into the gimmick toys like Power Bots (or whatever the not-Deluxes were) and the complete lack of bad guys for the Autobots to fight beyond one Voyager and one Deluxe (the latter of which was terrible) in a line dominated by good guys.

Still, I'll differ to your judgement, as it sounds like you know more about what's going on here than I do and I know when to concede a point to the better supported counterargument 

 

I think Sony will end up with the same issues with Robotech that WB did. Like it was stated previously- if it were to be made, it'd be so drastically different from what people remember that it just as well would flop. Besides- this newer generation is more familiar with Macross (thanks to Youtube and the internet) than it is with Robotech.

 

I hope Robotech gets made and succeeds. And I hope Bandai regains the license to the toyline as most of the Toynami figures are pretty lame.

 

>Sony.

Oh like that'll go well.  

 

They just need to kidnap, uh, acquire the right talent from Disney/Marvel.

 

Robotech, as in the random collection of Japanese IPs being held hostage for Western distribution by a lonely man at Harmony Gold with the phrase "reflex warhead" scribbled on a white T-shirt in sharpie?

Yeah I don't see a Robotech live action film hppening anytime soon.

*waits for new post Frontier Macross series*

 

I sense a lot of hate for Robotech around here. I know the is the Live Action TF movie thread but I can see Hollywood screwing up Robotech as well. I loved the series as a kid and still do. With that said I am sure they will mess it up as Bay did with TF. Sorry My opinion. I know the TF movies made an ass load of money but the writing was terrible. Robotech might end up the same way. If they want to do a new Robotech movie make it animated or Direct to video or Netflix. Hell, Disney was trying to do a live action Star blazers movie. Yeah, they will never happen.

 

They need to sic their Disney Lawyers on Harmony Gold once and for all is what they need to do.

 

Disney vs. Harmony Gold.

That shit right there would be a great film.

 

Make no mistake, there are a lot of Macross fans on this site and the Macross franchise as a whole is very well liked. It may not be as big of a name as Transformers or Gundam but it is still an iconic brand.

The perceived venom towards Robotech is more accurately frustration over Harmony Gold's IP trolling that prevents any further Macross related products from making it over to the U.S.

Just imagine if Hasbro was at odds with Takara and as a result the Transformers fiction (and any related products such as the MP line) were kept stagnant domestically for the past 3 decades aside from a few direct to dvd animated movies of questionable quality.