As noted by The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, The Last Knight managed a #1 $69.1m U.S. domestic box office bow against no other new wide release competition this weekend. Its opening gross is below that of AOE and thus marks the lowest of the franchise.
The Last Knight, which Paramount says cost $217 million to make before a major marketing spend, is the latest summer sequel to spring an oil leak, at least in the U.S., coming in 31 percent behind Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). And it is the first Transformers movie not to open to $100 million or more.
Now that we have the numbers, Variety goes further in offering potential reasons for the opening weekend decline from AOE to TLK.
Michael Bay’s latest seemed to lack a strong enough hook. That’s not to say there wasn’t an attempt. For example, Bay shot nearly the entire movie on Imax 3D cameras, which would seem to create a need to see the movie on the big screen. Also, a trailer for the movie showed Optimus Prime fighting Bumblebee, which sparked a question among fans: Why? But, in the end, the movie has failed to cut through the cultural conversation, or even seem different from the last installment in any significant way.
Find The Hollywood Reporter piece here, the Variety article here, then join the discussion on the 2005 boards!
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