‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ Running Out Of Gas With $15.6M Opening Day; CinemaScore Dips To B+ – Update
3rd Update, Thursday 7:14 AM: Paramount is reporting a $15.65M first day for Transformers: The Last Knight inclusive of Tuesday night’s $5.5M previews. While that’s slightly higher from where we saw it yesterday, it remains the lowest full first day for a Transformers movie. The 5-day outlook is still in the mid-$60M range, lower than what tracking and the Melrose Studio were expecting with $70M.
Last Knight received a B+ CinemaScore, so that tells you what audiences think of the fifthquel. The last time a Transformers movie received that low of a grade was 2009’s Revenge of the Fallen. The last Transformers movie Age of Extinction earned an A-, with the original 2007 title and 2011’s Dark of the Moon landing A grades.
Males repped 57% of Last Knight‘s Wednesday crowd to 43% females. Those under 18 at 29% love the movie with an A CinemaScore. If only more of them showed up. The 18-24 age group were even more tolerant of the Michael Bay title giving it an A-, along with the under 25 set who repped 49% of the crowd. Twenty-two percent bought tickets to Last Knight because of Mark Wahlberg, while 53% came out because it’s a Transformers movie.
Disney/Pixar’s Cars 3 was second on Wednesday with $4.3M, -36% from Tuesday, and a running cume of $70.3M. Warner Bros./DC’s Wonder Woman made $3.8M, -29%, for a running domestic total of $289.1M. This weekend, the movie will clear $300M.
Overseas results will likely be reported tomorrow over the weekend as Last Knight did not open in any Wednesday opening day territories (like France).
2ND Update: Wednesday, 1:45PM Paramount’s Transformers: The Last Knight as expected is on course to post the lowest stateside start in the series with a $15M opening day per industry sources. Compared to full day starts for a Transformers film, that’s the lowest first single day after 2009’s Revenge of the Fallen ($62M), 2014’s Age of Extinction ($41.9M), 2011’s Dark of the Moon ($37.7M) and the first 2007 movie ($27.9M). Last Knight‘s current ticket sales puts it on a course for a $63M-$65M five-day tally, which is lower than the $70M both Paramount and the industry were expecting — sequelitis in its essence. Wednesday’s take for The Last Knight includes last night’s $5.5M.
Again, these figures can fluctuate, but the outlook is that today could be Last Knight‘s best day at the domestic box office, with an estimated -43% decline tomorrow, and a rebound over the weekend with Saturday potentially coming in close to today’s ticket sales.
Carrying an estimated reported cost of $217M, Last Knight will certainly look to overseas to recoup. The last movie, which reached its then lowest domestic take of $245.4M for the franchise wound up grossing $1.1 billion worldwide, and churning a profit of $250M after all ancillary streams were counted.
While critics have blasted Last Knight with an 18% Rotten Tomatoes score, social media monitor Relish Mix notices a better response from potential moviegoers with “mixed convo that leans positive, yet mixed. Many Fans say they’ll be going to see the film, regardless of the bizarre plot lines, odd aspect ratio and essentially new cast. They like Transformers films for the summer and there is definitely an audience that remains for Michael Bay’s action spectaculars. Of course, plenty of other moviegoers say that this film series is the perfect example of summer movie wear-out. They have had it with effects-driven films that are more about stunt casting and crazy story lines. Perhaps it’s because the kids and teens are still into the series that the convo leans positive too.”
Relish Mix couches Last Knight‘s social media as “good” with 470.8 million followers spread across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Daily view counts for videos are averaging in the 21k per day range which is only in the moderate range compared to the genre average of 102K views per day leading up to an opening day. Leading man Mark Wahlberg with 27.7M social media followers is the movie’s biggest tubthumper, followed by Josh Duhamel with just under 10M, but there’s plenty of others on the project who are socially activated and pushing materials, i.e. Bay, actress Laura Haddock, and Isabela Moner (1.2M). But it’s Wahlberg, Relish Mix notes, whose “fans are engaging and commenting in enthusiastic fashion” to what he posts.
1ST Update, 6:40AM: Paramount’s Transformers: The Last Knight drew $5.5 million in previews Tuesday night from an overall count of 3,000 locations. The Michael Bay-directed fifthquel opens today in 4,069 locations.
Last Knight started at 7 PM in 546 locations with “Optimus Prime Time” playing exclusively in 3D Imax and RealD. Then at 8 PM, the Mark Wahlberg film moved up to 3,000 sites. The projection is that Last Knight pulls in an estimated $70M in five days, which would be the lowest start for any Transformers movie.
Paramount previewed the film quite late for the press, with a 4 PM PST review embargo yesterday and getting splashed with a 17% Rotten Tomatoes score, so far the lowest in the series. Critics have never enjoyed Bay’s Transformers going back to the first title (57% Rotten), but the Hasbro toy films always proved critic-proof in regards to huge ticket sales.
Previously, Transformers: Age Of Extinction, the last movie, started previews on Thursday night three years ago minting $8.75M from late-night showings starting at 9 PM on 2,990 screens. Paramount went on to report that pic’s opening weekend at $100M. Internally, Paramount is comping Last Knight to Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which earned $5.5M on its preview night, then $23.6M on its first day before a $63M weekend (however, that was the three day over Memorial Day).
According to ComScore, Last Knight files behind the midnight preview cash generated by 2009’s Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen ($16M, before posting a $62M first day) and 2011’s Dark Of The Moon ($13.5M, $37.7M first day).
Outside of Last Knight‘s $5.5M start, it was a robust day for movies with Disney’s Cars 3 making an estimated $6.8M, up 24% from Monday, for a running cume of $66M, followed by Warner Bros/DC’s Wonder Woman which made $5.4M, up 13%, with a running cume in its third week of $285.35M. The Patty Jenkins-directed movie will cross $300M this weekend. Stateside the movie is easily the highest-grossing live-action movie directed by a woman at the domestic box office, beating both Betty Thomas’ CGI-hybrid Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel ($219.6M) and Twilight ($192.8m). Lionsgate’s All Eyez On Me grossed an estimated $1.97M, -6% from Monday, for a five-day take of $30.5M.
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