Paramount Not Developing 'Transformers One' Sequel After Original's Disastrous Box Office Performance

Transformers One director Josh Cooley revealed that Paramount is not developing a sequel to the film following his film’s disastrous performance at the box office.

Cooley appeared on a panel at BotCon and said, “I wish I had something to announce, but I do not. What I’ve been told is that Paramount Animation is not interested in making a sequel to it.”

“That’s what I was told. I wish we could. I have ideas, too. So it would have been cool. We’ll see what happens. You never know,” he added.

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Transformers One bombed at the box office. The film reported had a $75 million budget and thus needed to gross at least $225 million to break even. However, the film only grossed $59 million domestically and another $69.2 million internationally for a global gross of $128.3 million.

In an interview with Collider ahead of the film’s release producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura made it clear the film had to perform at the box office in order for a possible trilogy to be made. He said, “The truth of the matter is, you never get to the second movie unless everybody shows up at the box office. We both said to ourselves, ‘This is way too hard to make one good movie to start thinking a lot about the second movie.’ But along the way, there were ideas that we were like, ‘Well, that can't fit in here. Let's hold onto that. Let's not forget that idea.’ Although, I'm sure we've forgotten some of them.”

Cooley also informed Collider that he had written some of those ideas down and shared, “Yes, we thinking of this one story for this moment, for this movie, but it's about towards the last year of a film where I can't help but go, ‘Well, how would this naturally progress?’ So we've got some ideas. We talked about a few things, and we'll see what happens.”

Nevertheless, Di Bonaventura added, “We're not thinking of this as a trilogy because trilogies can be made and make a lot of money and do all that. Once we came up with the concept here of what happened to this friendship, we immediately went, ‘Then in the second movie, this is what happens between these two guys, and this is what happens between the third.’ It's truly the character. We don't know the plots, but we know what the characters are going to go through, which is really interesting.”

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As noted by pop culture critics and commentators Kneon and Geeky Sparkle at Clownfish TV, Transformers owner Hasbro is also conducting another round of layoffs.

Hasbro reportedly laid off around 150 employees or 3% of its workforce in this recent round of layoffs. A Hasbro spokesman told Retail Dive, “We are aligning our structure with our long-term goals.”

Since 2023 the company has cut around 2500 employees.

Additionally, on top of Transformers One being a box office bomb, the toy line associated with the film is seemingly not selling well. Geeky Sparkles observed, “They’re not moving. They’re on the shelves, not moving.”

Kneon added, “We’re not getting the new legacy figures because these Transformers One figures are clogging the shelves.”

What do you make of Paramount not pursuing a Transformers One sequel?

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