'Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts' Tops Weekend Box Office, Brings In $170 Million Worldwide
By Jeffrey Harris on June 12, 2023 at 4:15 PM EDT
The Autobots rolled out and dominated the box office scene again over the weekend with Paramount's release of the new sequel, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts." The film topped the weekend box office, besting the highly acclaimed "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" in its second weekend of release. As reported by Deadline, the new "Transformers" live-action feature brought in an estimated $60.5 million domestically and $170.5 million worldwide.
'Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts' Off To Strong Start At The Box Office
While "Rise of the Beasts" was not well-liked by critics, scoring 52% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film appears to be doing better with audiences. Its audience score currently stands at 92%. Also, the film had a considerably higher opening take than its predecessor, the 2018 film "Bumblebee," which had much better reviews and opened to $21.6 million in December 2018. The film made $127 million domestically and $467 million worldwide.
It also had a much higher opening weekend than the last "Transformers" movie directed by Michael Bay, "Transformers: The Last Knight," which had an opening weekend of $44 million in July 2017, finishing with only $130 million domestic and $605 million worldwide, inciting Paramount to initiate a soft reboot for the franchise starting with "Bumblebee."
What is working against the favor of "Rise of the Beasts" is its incredibly high budget. It has a reported price tag of about $200 million, which likely doesn't include marketing and distribution fees. The summer tentpole release schedule is looking very competitive for the rest of June and later in July. June 16 will see the release of both DC's "The Flash" from Warner Bros. and Disney and Pixar's "Elemental." Also, "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" arrives in theaters on June 30.
Meanwhile, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" still had a strong showing in its second fame despite losing to "Transformers" this weekend. The film brought another estimated $55.4 million to its domestic take over the weekend, bringing its current North American total to $225.4 million. It only dropped about 54% over the weekend, which is suitable for a comic book superhero-based film. Comic book films tend to be very front-loaded, so a drop under 55% in its second weekend is decent.
"Across the Spider-Verse" has thus far brought in an estimated $313 million worldwide. The sequel has already surpassed the $190 million grossed by the previous film in theaters, which finished at $384 million worldwide. The sequel should finish much higher before it leaves the theatrical market.
Disney's "The Little Mermaid" continues decently in domestic theaters. It finished at No. 3 and only dropped 44% in its third weekend of release, bringing in another $22.7 million. It's now sitting on $228 million domestically.
Lastly, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" came in at No. 4 with another $7 million, bringing its current domestic total to $335.4 million and about $805 million worldwide. It has not surpassed the domestic and worldwide takes of $333 million and $773 million, respectively. While it appears unlikely to reach the $389 million domestic haul of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," it seems to have a decent shot at beating the second film's $863 million worldwide finish.
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts," based on the Hasbro action figure franchise, is directed by Steven Caple Jr. and stars Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Peter Cullen, Ron Perlman, Pete Davidson, and Michelle Yeoh. It's playing now in theaters.
