Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Breaks Unfortunate Franchise Record

The latest film in the Transformers franchise, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, has broken an unfortunate record. Over two months after opening in theaters, the film has earned just $437 million at the box office worldwide, making it the lowest-grossing live-action Transformers film to date. The film comes in behind Bumblebee, which made just $465.2 million which itself is a far bit behind the film before it in terms of box office performance, Transformers: The Last Knight, which made $602.9 million. The top performing film in the live-action Transformers franchise is currently 2011's Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which sits at $1.12 billion at the box office.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opened in theaters in June and is the seventh film in the Transformers franchise. The film is inspired by the fan-favorite reboot of the series, Beast Wars, and is set in the 1990s. The film features Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) along with other Autobots and Decepticons, including Bumblebee and Pete Davidson's Mirage. The film also features Ron Perlman as the voice of the gorilla-inspired Optimus Primal, Michelle Yeoh as the voice of Maximal Airazor and stars Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback. The film is directed by Steven Caple Jr.

Will There Be a Sequel to Rise of the Beasts?

A direct sequel to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts hasn't been announced, though Caple Jr. has previously said that he does have ideas for what a follow-up film could take on.

"I have some ideas for how to branch out that part of the Hasbro franchise," the director told Deadline in an interview earlier this year. "I can do this crossover that I plan on doing, there's a way to feed the fans what we want in transformers films but also do something cool with another legendary IP that I've always been in love with since I was a kid. There's parts of it, and characters, that we've never used before."

Could There Be a Transformers/GI Joe Crossover in the Future?

The end of Rise of the Beasts featured a big GI Joe tease by revealing the existence of the GI Joe organization and, if Caple Jr. has his way, a crossover between the beloved franchises could happen in the future as the director has ideas of how to make that happen.

"Yeah, it was figuring out a way to use the G.I. Joe technology because they're known for their tech. I was like, 'Maybe we don't have to go through the classic characters like Snake Eyes and Duke and all these other characters. Maybe there's a way we can use other characters that haven't been utilized as much.' There's different series and editions and different factions of G.I. Joe as well," Caple Jr. said. "There's G.I. Joe: Renegades and different branches of it, too. So, I started to play with that, and I pitched versions of it to the studio and the producers. I pitched a direction I wanted to go in and ways to branch out the universe in general. Transformers movies have scope and size, but we've been spending a lot of time here on Earth, so I just think there's more out there. Even in the graphic novels for Transformers, there's other planets and things like that, and I was like, 'We're just thinking too small.' So, if we're going to do movie number eight and nine and ten, maybe there's a way to make this all more expansive and branch out."

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is now streaming on Paramount+.

(H/T: The Direct)