Summary

• Transformers 8 must break franchise box office trend to avoid further decline and maintain audience interest in the series.
• Paramount's plans for a G.I. Joe crossover in Transformers 8 could potentially help boost box office prospects and reignite audience excitement.
• The pressure is on Transformers 8 to outperform previous movies in the franchise and set a new standard for success to ensure its future.

Transformers movies gave Paramount Pictures a multi-billion-dollar live-action franchise based on the Hasbro toys. It became quite common for the latest installments to be major box office hits and even sur the $1 billion milestone on occasion. However, the once mighty franchise has suffered in recent years as Paramount has attempted to retool the IP while watching Transformers lose steam at the box office.

Even after seeing Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' box office, Paramount has remained bullish on the expansion of the franchise. This includes developing Transformers 8, in addition to a new animated film and standalone feature. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' ending directly sets up where the story can go in the sequel, with the G.I. Joe tease creating greater anticipation for the installment. This has meant heightened expectations might already exist for Transformers 8's box office, and that means it must break the franchise's recent trend.

The Last 3 Transformers Movies Have Each Set New Lowest-Grossing Box Office Records

The days of Transformers movies dominating the box office have ed, as the franchise has seen its last three films struggle to match expectations. Paramount was thrilled with the direction of the franchise financially early on, as box office totals increased with each sequel in Michael Bay's original trilogy. Even Transformers: Age of Extinction performed incredibly well, even if it fell just shy of suring Transformers: Dark of the Moon's record for the franchise's highest-grossing movie.

The issues for Transformers at the box office started with the release of Transformers: The Last Knight. The movie had a substantial drop from Age of Extinction's performance where it barely made more than half. This was enough for Transformers: The Last Knight to become the lowest-grossing Transformers movie in the live-action franchise. It came as no surprise then that Paramount decided to soft-reboot the series and the continuity without Bay at the helm of future installments. The Last Knight's box office indicated audiences were done with the Bayisms and wanted something new.

What Paramount did not see coming was that The Last Knight was the beginning of a trend where the last three Transformers movies had record-low box office totals. Bumblebee was thought to be a great pivot for the franchise, but the standalone movie made over $100 million less than The Last Knight despite much stronger reviews. This brought Paramount to finally adapt Beast Wars with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts in the hope of returning Transformers to box office glory. The reality is it fell short of beating Bumblebee, making Rise of the Beasts the lowest-grossing movie in the franchise.

The animated film, The Transformers: The Movie, only made $5 million at the box office back in 1986.

Transformers 8 Can't Break The Lowest-Grossing Transformers Movie Record Again

There would be no sense in Paramount continuing to make massively expensive blockbusters in a franchise that audiences are not showing up for.

The current trend where each new Transformers movie becomes the lowest-grossing film adds much more pressure to Transformers 8. Paramount cannot afford to have four consecutive movies in the franchise have record-low box office totals. It would mean that the franchise has been in decline for five straight Transformers movies. That streak could even possibly be extended if Transformers One does not perform better than Rise of the Beasts once it arrives in December 2024.

Paramount currently has plans for Transformers 8 and Transformers 9 as part of a new trilogy, but those ideas will not come to fruition if the franchise's trajectory does not change. Transformers 8 resetting the bar with another lowest-grossing movie record would likely kill the franchise. There would be no sense in Paramount continuing to make massively expensive blockbusters in a franchise that audiences are not showing up for. If the series is going to continue bringing the Autobots and Decepticons to the big screen, Transformers 8 has to outperform at least one previous Transformers movie.

Transformers 8's G.I. Joe Crossover Can Help Fix The Franchise's Box Office

The good news for Paramount and Transformers 8 is that the plans for a G.I. Joe crossover could help turn the franchise's box office prospects around. It is true that the G.I. Joe movies have never been major box office hits, but it is the chance to see the G.I. Joes and Autobots together in live-action that will get audiences excited. Some have waited decades for the chance to witness this type of cinematic crossover, but Paramount's previous attempts at a G.I. Joe and Transformers crossover never materialized. This should be to Transformers 8's benefit then.

Just as the franchise finally gave audiences a chance to see Beast Wars characters in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the opportunity for a new G.I. Joe team to interact with Autobots is highly anticipated. The increased interest could have a positive impact on Transformers 8's box office as the film draws in fans of another massively popular toy series. Paramount is clearly hoping that whatever drop in interest in Transformers that has come can be repaired by adding in the G.I. Joe characters for a major crossover event.