While the Bayverse movies were never the best, they were more regular, shooting bad even though I liked those movies where the action, the effects and the soundtrack were the most outstanding, if not the only thing, whenever these movies were released. in the cinemas they raised millions of dollars in the box office, but two of them exceeded the billions of dollars, DOTM at the time was the fourth highest grossing of all time and AOE the tenth, this was also the highest grossing in China in its moment where they love the Transformers and thanks to the Chinese Bumblebee saved from the failure, although after AOE the box office domestic, international and even the Chinese were declining even so that does not mean that the original trilogy was very successful despite the worst scores they received in Rotten Tomatoes, which served Bay as one of Hollywood's most lucrative directors. What is the success of if they were so bad for some?

 

They were entertaining.

 

BOX OFFICE
Worldwide
*TF-$709.7M
*ROTF-$836.3M
*DOTM-$1123.4B
*AOE-$1104.8B
*TLK -$605.4M
*BB-$468.0M
Domestic
*TF-$319.2M
*ROTF-$402.1M
*DOTM-$352.4M
*AOE-$245.4M
*TLK-$130.2M
*BB-$127.2 M
Foreing Total
*TF-$390.5M
*ROTF-$434.2M
*DOTM-$771.4M
*AOE-$858.6M
*TLK-$475.3M
*BB-$340.8M
China
*TF-$37.2M
*ROTF-$$65.8M
*DOTM-$165.1M
*AOE-$320.0M
*TLK-$228.8M
*BB-$170.8M
Budget
*TF-$150M
*ROTF-$200M
*DOTM-195M
*AOE$-210M
*TLK-$217M
*BB- $135M
Opinions?

 

Nostalgia and it was something original

 

The CGI was cutting edge back then, plus it was the era of the big budget blockbuster where visuals alone and a story that was serviceable in some format or another could be acceptable.

Nowadays, TF2007 wouldn't break half a billion if released against modern entries like Detective Pikachu.

 

Given Pokemon's popularity its a given, but if either TF1 with no sequels or Bumblebee on it's own came out they'd make money. No Bayhem fatigue, no dumb fan-service controversies, no continuity problems, etc.

 

Because giant robots turning into awesome looking cars, hot girls and explosions.

 

- the 2007 movie was genuinely good so a lot of goodwill came from there.

- new special effects. Did not care much for bay’s action and explosions, but seeing the first transformation from blackout then barricade’s interrogation scene was mind-blowing. Back then it was something new and awesome and hyped people up.

Up until this day I’m obsessed with these transformations. I used to even play and pause, specially barricade’s transformation during the interrogation scene.

- giant extraterrestrial bio-mechanical natural living organisms.

- Nostalgia.

But I keep saying: even how bad the bay movies were (With the exception of 2007), the movies still managed to rake in more than a billion dollars collectively.

I just know that Transformers live-action in an ensemble or solo setting is yet to realize its full, maximum potential.

If the new movies are handled by someone like a Travis Knight and a Kevin Feige, it will be on top again. Even more.

Guaranteed.

But it’s best to wait 5 years and bring some distance between the bay movies and any planned reboot.

 

Transformers is a franchise that almost everyone who grew up in the 80s and 90s wanted to see on the big screen. It was arguably the biggest toy franchise of the 80s. The visual spectacle that the concept lend itself for was and is comparable to no other and Bay took great advantage of it, with incredibly photorealistic CGI, paired with practical stunts and, of course, explosions. That's all plenty, to at least get people into theaters. But in order to keep them coming back, you need the story, the characters and the mythology for an emotional impact to go with them. It's easy to miss what's more than meets the eye about Transformers and this series of movies did exactly that. And that explains the diminishing returns and bad reviews and overall terrible perception.

 

They were all entertaining movies with great visuals, great scores, and great sound. They were something novel and unique; they were the first ever attempt at live action Transformers.

The timing was also right. Many eighties kids were now somewhat young adults and feeling some nostalgia. Plus, the films appealed to kids and young adults, so there's that.

I also think that Transformers works best on the edge of chaos, and Bayformers embraced that. Yeah, it was over-the-top, with many silly characters and things that weren't real world realistic, but all Transformers fiction has been that to some degree or another. I think the Bay movies actually captured the scale and on-screen presence of the Transformers very well (which was a big part of their success I think), and the war and its effects on the robots and humans alike was depicted well.

So regardless of what one feels about them, they entertained many people, they made some people laugh, they awed people, they moved some, they had things in them different people could relate to, and, maybe, despite being over-the-top blockbusters, they even made some people think. None of those things are bad things. On the contrary, I think human beings of different stripes finding different things in the Transformers brand they like, even if not all fans liked the films, is not a travesty, but a beautiful thing.

Going forward, and regardless of what continuity it takes place in, I think the best possible TF movie would not be Bayformers or Bumblebee, but something that learns from both and does something that is balanced between the two.

 

There’s a lot to be said about this winning combo

 

Mindless Popcorn Movie effect. For the most part the movies were entertaining and had enough "ooh" and "ahh" to keep an audience entertained.

 

The first film had the good luck of being released when it was.

Films tend to have eras so if you've seen enough old films you can tell something was made in the 50's or the 70's just by the look of movie. We had not transitioned yet into our current era of films so Bay's style was still matching what the rest of Hollywood was doing instead of feeling old and worn out. If you look at the top ten in 2007 it was Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Transformers, Pirates: At World's End, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I am Legend, The Bourne Ultimatum, Nation Treasure Book of Secrets, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and 300. It was an era when visual style and action spectacle was still enough to carry a film.

Revenge of the Fallen we still were not in the age of Disney dominates all, but it was a turning point because the domestic box office would never be that good for Transformers ever again. For the domestic market it got easier and easier for ticket buyers to just walk away from the franchise.

But Transformers would have one more stroke of good luck to prop up the live action franchise for a while longer. We started seeing more people have disposable income and the Hollywood studios were more than happy to put their movies into the brand new movie theaters that were popping up all over the world. While there were warnings not to put too many of their eggs in the international basket Paramount gambled big that the good times would never end and international tastes would never change. Even though the Transformers were running off some international fans the growth rate was just so good that Paramount could afford to disappoint people as brand new tickets were coming in faster than Transformers could run them off.

But tastes did change and to compound the problem in China the Chinese film makers were not just sitting on their hands so when you look at the international box office there are more and more Chinese films towards the top of the list because Chinese film makers know what their domestic views want.

Looking at the negative reaction the Sonic the Hedgehog trail got it seems that Paramount still hasn't figured out how to be a major player in the current film era. Not sure that Transformers will ever be able to climb back up to the top of the box office without Paramount getting with the times instead of thinking they can coast on well this used to be big.

 

As the poster above me said, times were different then. That's weird to say, because a lot of people tend to think of Transformers (even the first one) as "modern" movies, but Hollywood has changed and evolved so much since then. As @Autobot Burnout said, I don't think they would be big hits if they were released today. During the '90s and 2000s, audiences were more open to action-first films that strayed from the source material. In the age where Marvel movies rule*, audiences place more value on storytelling (including long-form storytelling) and stronger homage to source material. Especially after the initial gimmick gets old (in this case, transforming robots).

For a while, I was baffled that TLK failed. Now, I sort of see that it was inevitable. While TLK attempted to include some (surface-level) Marvely* aspects, Bay didn't really attempt to step up the storytelling. The domestic hype wore of, the international hype wore off, and what was left didn't have enough substance to remain profitable with the general public.

* Note that I'm not saying a movie has to be "Marvely" to be successful in the modern era. But I do think Marvel movies contain what modern audiences value (hence why Endgame has a serious possibility of becoming the biggest movie ever).

 

The first movie caught audiences by surprise because there wasn't anything like it. Michael Bay was able to successfully re-introduce transformers in a global scale. In a more realistic approach. And it worked for most people.
Sadly the creative process in developing the story for the movies going forward were never well thought out. Ultimately transformers bad humor and poor writing ended with TLK.

 

but think if these movies had improved in quality maybe now it would be one of the most successful franchises of all time but we can blame either Paramount or Hasbro as they did not see the box office figures fall so they did nothing to improve , so now the future of the movies is uncertain hopefully Bumblebee has recovered the goodwill that in the distant 2007 Transformers had injected into the audience, and we will see those results in Bumblebee 2 or whatever the next film of Transformers. I do not know if ever a TF movie reaches what ROTF did at the domestic box office, DOTM at the global box office and AOE at the Chinese box office

 

Simply put, they filled a niche that was otherwise untapped until recent years, which is when they started to fall behind. Big CGI spectacle was still novel.

But now CGI bullshit is so commonplace it's almost a negative, and people expect more from a story than just a bunch of computer effects and loud noises.

 

Wow, I didn't realize just how big of a drop off there was between AoE and TLK. I wonder if it's because they killed off pretty much all that was left of the TF cast other than Optimus, Bumblebee, and Megatron in AoE...

 

I was naive believing it was going to be as big as star wars some day when I saw TF3.

 

While TLK was a big drop in the global box office after AOE that does not mean that being the least collected is the worst I think that ROTF-AOE-TLK are tied in that aspect have their pros and cons but are anything but good movies, plus the 5 movies of the Bayverse practically recycle the same plot that the Autobots try to get the macguffin before the Decepticons to save the planet in comparison Bumblebee also has a generic plot but this one is different from the Bayverse and it is managed from the best possible way, so that who would not be bored to see the same movie 5 times just changing scenarios, characters and some history. so much was the bad taste in the mouth that people in the Bayverse that BB was the lowest gross in the USA, in China, internationally and globally of the saga a real shame for a franchise that had great potential I hope Paramount has learned the lesson and now they deliver us above all GOOD MOVIES.