"It doesn't matter if it's shit, you're all going to watch it anyways and they're gonna make billions of dollars either way."
You'll often see this line of thinking just before the release of a highly anticipated film, whether it's on social media, GAF or speaking to your friends in real life. Reviews are shitting all over the film, but it doesn't matter, right? Marketing is all over the place. The IPs are well known and beloved. It doesn't matter if the critics hate the film, it's still going to make a killing.
Well, as we've seen recently with Batman v Superman, and many other similar films, this is not always the case. Social media is a massive force, and now more than ever, negative word of mouth can make or break a film. Whether you read it yourself, or simply heard it, you knew the buzz going into Batman v Superman's opening weekend: the critical response was the absolute shits. While such negativity usually isn't enough to slow down a massive opening weekend, these films usually get hit the hardest in the second weekend and beyond, with massive, 50%+ drops.
Now, a film that was virtually guaranteed to gross a billion dollars worldwide looks like it will struggle to get passed $850 million. Batman v Superman, a critical flop starring the two of the most recognizable and beloved pop culture icons in the world, will not pass Deadpool, an R-rated, low budget, C-tier superhero movie at the domestic box office.
Today, word of mouth is everything. Critical response to a film spreads faster then ever. The word WILL get out there: If your movie is shit, the audience is going to know, and they aren't going to watch it.
Lets take a look at the top 15 highest grossing films of all time:
With the exception of 4 films on this list, all of them are certified fresh by Rotten Tomatoes, meaning a score of 75% or more after a certain amount of time. Jurassic World comes close, with a 71%.
To me, two films stand out on this list like a sore thumb: The two Transformers films.
Look at my quote at the beginning of this post. It's usually followed by "Just look at the Transformers films!" Michael Bay's Transformers have all been absolute monsters at the box office, despite EXTREMELY negative critical reception. This series, now at four films, with another three already confirmed, seems to be the only consistently bulletproof "rotten" franchise at the box office.
Lets quickly take a look at the four films.
I remember the conversations going into the first Transformers film basically being summed up as "How the fuck are they going to do a live action Transformers?"
In the end, with the help of ILM, they made it work. Transformers was the huge summer blockbuster of 2007, and gave birth to the film franchise we now lovingly refer to as "Bayformers".
Somehow, this film just made a killing at the box office. While it seems so obvious now, at the time, we didn't know how well an 80s cartoon would translate to box office success. It certainly wasn't a homerun guarantee to make over $500 million.
In the end, while Transformers 1 wasn't a masterpiece by any means, I do think it exceeded expectations and people generally liked the film. A 57% isn't great at RT, but as you can see by the audience score, people certainly LIKED the film, and I remember word of mouth being very positive that Summer.
With the sequel confirmed, surely it's onward and upward from here.
FUCK.
They followed the decent Transformers 1 with this fucking turd. Racist charicatures that would make Jar Jar Binks blush. Just a terrible movie.
As you can see... the RT and audience score reflected that. The box office went UP, but I chalked that up to the overall awareness and popularity of Transformers being WAY higher since 2007 thanks to the first movie. Social media wasn't as big as it is today, and people wanted to check out the big summer blockbuster movie with robots and explosions.
Well, they did. And they saw the shits.
Transformers 3 is going to feel that pain.
And now we reach the reason why I made this thread. Transformers fucking 3. I should have known better after watching the absolute shit that was 2, but I did watch 3 in theatres, hoping 2 was just some sick misstep and that this new film would go back to what I liked about the first film. Maybe even improve it?
No. 3 was just as bad as 2, maybe worse. I seem to remember losing consciousness with my eyes still open while watching it. What a piece of shit.
The most baffling piece of this puzzle is the box office. TF3 grossed nearly $300 million more than TF2, making it the first Transformers film to hit a billion dollars. While most of that money came from overseas business, and the domestic take was actually down from TF2, THAT'S STILL A LOT OF MONEY FOR A HUGE PIECE OF SHIT.
The fact that TF3 managed to do this kind of business after the absolutely terrible TF2 is nothing short of remarkable. Not even fucking STAR WARS could follow a horrible entry with a huge box office performance like this. How was Transformers so immune to such criticism and negative word of mouth?
At this point, I think most people accepted that these films were just bulletproof when it came to the box office. And then TF4 rolled out...
Christ.
After what was literally the worst film I've ever seen in theatres in Transformers 2, they crank out two more pieces of garbage that manage to gross over a billion at the box office worldwide and land in the top 15 highest grossing films of all time, mostly in the company of films that are actually well made and beloved.
Amazingly, Transformers 4 lost a solid $100 million at the domestic box office... which was made up entirely by the overseas market.
I think the overseas market is another good discussion point for this thread. While the domestic market cools on these shitty films, overseas Transformers seems bigger than ever. Does the overseas market just not care much about critical reception? Does word of mouth not effect them?
Of course, that's ridiculous. There are plenty of shitty, big budget films out there, Batman v Superman included, that certainly bet on big business from overseas markets... and they were having none of that.
So GAF, lets open this up. Why are the Transformers movies so successful, despite toxic critical response and word of mouth? Well, on the surface it seems pretty simple:
-recognizable IP
-sick cars
-sexy ladies
-guns
-explosions
-impressive CGI action
But is it that simple? Many have tried to replicate the success of Transformers with that general blueprint, and none have even managed a fraction of its success.
So what is it, GAF? How can Transformers withstand such negativity and manage two, billion dollar films in a row while a Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman cross over film can't even come close? Do I just live in a weird bubble where the internet/critics/all my friends and family hate the Transformers films, but in reality everyone actually loves them? Is Michael Bay just a genius? Does China, in fact, not care? Will Transformers 5 continue the trend of $1 billion+ garbage Transformers films? I know we have some box office experts on GAF, I'd love to hear your take on it!
You'll often see this line of thinking just before the release of a highly anticipated film, whether it's on social media, GAF or speaking to your friends in real life. Reviews are shitting all over the film, but it doesn't matter, right? Marketing is all over the place. The IPs are well known and beloved. It doesn't matter if the critics hate the film, it's still going to make a killing.
Well, as we've seen recently with Batman v Superman, and many other similar films, this is not always the case. Social media is a massive force, and now more than ever, negative word of mouth can make or break a film. Whether you read it yourself, or simply heard it, you knew the buzz going into Batman v Superman's opening weekend: the critical response was the absolute shits. While such negativity usually isn't enough to slow down a massive opening weekend, these films usually get hit the hardest in the second weekend and beyond, with massive, 50%+ drops.
Now, a film that was virtually guaranteed to gross a billion dollars worldwide looks like it will struggle to get passed $850 million. Batman v Superman, a critical flop starring the two of the most recognizable and beloved pop culture icons in the world, will not pass Deadpool, an R-rated, low budget, C-tier superhero movie at the domestic box office.
Today, word of mouth is everything. Critical response to a film spreads faster then ever. The word WILL get out there: If your movie is shit, the audience is going to know, and they aren't going to watch it.
Lets take a look at the top 15 highest grossing films of all time:
With the exception of 4 films on this list, all of them are certified fresh by Rotten Tomatoes, meaning a score of 75% or more after a certain amount of time. Jurassic World comes close, with a 71%.
To me, two films stand out on this list like a sore thumb: The two Transformers films.
Look at my quote at the beginning of this post. It's usually followed by "Just look at the Transformers films!" Michael Bay's Transformers have all been absolute monsters at the box office, despite EXTREMELY negative critical reception. This series, now at four films, with another three already confirmed, seems to be the only consistently bulletproof "rotten" franchise at the box office.
Lets quickly take a look at the four films.
I remember the conversations going into the first Transformers film basically being summed up as "How the fuck are they going to do a live action Transformers?"
In the end, with the help of ILM, they made it work. Transformers was the huge summer blockbuster of 2007, and gave birth to the film franchise we now lovingly refer to as "Bayformers".
Somehow, this film just made a killing at the box office. While it seems so obvious now, at the time, we didn't know how well an 80s cartoon would translate to box office success. It certainly wasn't a homerun guarantee to make over $500 million.
In the end, while Transformers 1 wasn't a masterpiece by any means, I do think it exceeded expectations and people generally liked the film. A 57% isn't great at RT, but as you can see by the audience score, people certainly LIKED the film, and I remember word of mouth being very positive that Summer.
With the sequel confirmed, surely it's onward and upward from here.
FUCK.
They followed the decent Transformers 1 with this fucking turd. Racist charicatures that would make Jar Jar Binks blush. Just a terrible movie.
As you can see... the RT and audience score reflected that. The box office went UP, but I chalked that up to the overall awareness and popularity of Transformers being WAY higher since 2007 thanks to the first movie. Social media wasn't as big as it is today, and people wanted to check out the big summer blockbuster movie with robots and explosions.
Well, they did. And they saw the shits.
Transformers 3 is going to feel that pain.
And now we reach the reason why I made this thread. Transformers fucking 3. I should have known better after watching the absolute shit that was 2, but I did watch 3 in theatres, hoping 2 was just some sick misstep and that this new film would go back to what I liked about the first film. Maybe even improve it?
No. 3 was just as bad as 2, maybe worse. I seem to remember losing consciousness with my eyes still open while watching it. What a piece of shit.
The most baffling piece of this puzzle is the box office. TF3 grossed nearly $300 million more than TF2, making it the first Transformers film to hit a billion dollars. While most of that money came from overseas business, and the domestic take was actually down from TF2, THAT'S STILL A LOT OF MONEY FOR A HUGE PIECE OF SHIT.
The fact that TF3 managed to do this kind of business after the absolutely terrible TF2 is nothing short of remarkable. Not even fucking STAR WARS could follow a horrible entry with a huge box office performance like this. How was Transformers so immune to such criticism and negative word of mouth?
At this point, I think most people accepted that these films were just bulletproof when it came to the box office. And then TF4 rolled out...
Christ.
After what was literally the worst film I've ever seen in theatres in Transformers 2, they crank out two more pieces of garbage that manage to gross over a billion at the box office worldwide and land in the top 15 highest grossing films of all time, mostly in the company of films that are actually well made and beloved.
Amazingly, Transformers 4 lost a solid $100 million at the domestic box office... which was made up entirely by the overseas market.
I think the overseas market is another good discussion point for this thread. While the domestic market cools on these shitty films, overseas Transformers seems bigger than ever. Does the overseas market just not care much about critical reception? Does word of mouth not effect them?
Of course, that's ridiculous. There are plenty of shitty, big budget films out there, Batman v Superman included, that certainly bet on big business from overseas markets... and they were having none of that.
So GAF, lets open this up. Why are the Transformers movies so successful, despite toxic critical response and word of mouth? Well, on the surface it seems pretty simple:
-recognizable IP
-sick cars
-sexy ladies
-guns
-explosions
-impressive CGI action
But is it that simple? Many have tried to replicate the success of Transformers with that general blueprint, and none have even managed a fraction of its success.
So what is it, GAF? How can Transformers withstand such negativity and manage two, billion dollar films in a row while a Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman cross over film can't even come close? Do I just live in a weird bubble where the internet/critics/all my friends and family hate the Transformers films, but in reality everyone actually loves them? Is Michael Bay just a genius? Does China, in fact, not care? Will Transformers 5 continue the trend of $1 billion+ garbage Transformers films? I know we have some box office experts on GAF, I'd love to hear your take on it!
