Transformers Box Office Commentary
Transformers 2 has grossed $387 million worldwide to this point, according to boxofficemojo.com
In 5 days.
That’s crazy talk.
The film got mostly negative reviews and recently this article came out
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090621/film_nm/us_transformers
saying Bay had complained about the marketing of the film, though as the article notes it seems he later reversed course and praised the studio.
And it did not feel like an event film, at least anecdotally, in my personal existence. I felt like there was less promotion, less TV spots, and definitely less excitement amongst people I knew. Clearly I was wrong.
But isn’t it strange to consider that this film has reached Dark Knight style numbers? That film was constantly buzzed about, Heath Ledger’s performance basically considered legendary, the trailer was incredible and grew interest even further and yet Transformers 2 reached similar numbers.
Am I missing something here?
Granted, Michael Bay’s last sequel Bad Boys II was also the recipient of mostly negative reviews and a pretty big hit at the box office and you know what?
I dug it. I rented it one day and had a blast watching it.
Which brings up another strange point. Transformers 2 is REALLY long, 150 minutes according to IMDB (Bad Boys II was 147). Because of that epic length theaters shouldn’t be able to show the film as many times a day, no?
Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I found Transformers fun for about an hour then exhausting and headache inducing once we got confusing close-ups that basically were like watching two toasters being smashed together for the next hour.
That said, I reserve judgement until I see the sequel.
Nonetheless, this is pretty incredible. Everyone knew this movie would be a hit, but this is pretty up-there territory. It will be interesting to see if, given that most critics (and I suspect most fans) would say Dark Knight is a far superior film, Transformers 2 can approach the Knight‘s final gross worldwide. It may just be a flash in the pan then burn out quick.