Transformers One Loses Box Office Battle To Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Demi Moore & Halle Berry Horrors Struggle [Full Chart Update]

The animated prequel Transformers One has lost its battle for the top spot in its opening weekend. The Transformers One box office debut comes during the third weekend in September, at the same time as two new release horror movies. Those would be Never Let Go, a survival thriller from High Tension and Crawl‘s Alexandre Aja that stars Halle Berry as a mother who is desperate to protect her children from mysterious outside entities, and The Substance, the sophomore feature from Revenge director Coralie Fargeat which stars Demi Moore as an aging fitness icon.

Per Deadline, as of Sunday morning, Transformers One is projected to earn a three-day opening weekend of $25 million at the domestic box office. This falls considerably below original projections and sees it falling behind in its neck-and-neck battle for the No. 1 slot with the third weekend of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which is projected to hit $26 million.

Meanwhile, both new horror titles are struggling to make a splash as the Tim Burton legacy sequel continues to choke out the pre-Halloween season marketplace. Never Let Go, which comes with a $20 million price tag, is projected to debut in fourth place at $4.5 million, while The Substance, which is in a similar budget range at $17.5 million, is set for an off-chart opening of $3.1 million. See the full domestic Top 5 chart for the weekend below:

The remaining titles on the chart are the horror remake Speak No Evil, which has fallen to No. 3 from its debut position at No. 2, and the summer’s holdover superhero smash Deadpool & Wolverine, which is now at No. 5 after falling to No. 3 the previous weekend. Last weekend’s No. 4 and No. 5 titles, the documentary Am I Racist? and the presidential biopic Reagan, are now No. 7 and No. 8 respectively, behind The Substance at No. 6.

What This Opening Weekend Means For Transformers One

It Does Not Compare Well With The Rest Of The Transformers Franchise

Ultimately, this disappointing Transformers One opening weekend shows that the movie franchise has not yet pulled out of its box office slump, which began to set in after 2017’s The Last Knight debuted to less than half of what the previous installment, 2014’s Age of Extinction, made. In fact, it marks the second-lowest debut of the entire franchise after Bumblebee, which opened to $21.6 million in 2018, ultimately resulting in the franchise going dormant for half a decade. Below, see how the new installment compares to the opening weekends and worldwide grosses of all the modern Transformers movies:

It remains to be seen how high the Transformers One release climbs by the end of its run. If it behaves like a modern animated release such as Migration or Elemental, it could become a sleeper hit and climb the charts slowly and steadily by the end of the year. Its reported budget between $75-147 million also makes it the cheapest installment of the franchise other than the $135 million Bumblebee. In many cases it is cheaper by a considerable margin, as several cost $200 million or more. This means that it has a much more open path toward profitability.

Our Take On The Weekend’s Box Office

Original Horror Continues To Take A Hit

The quiet reception for The Substance and Never Let Go continues a general lukewarm period for 2024 horror movies, compounding with the underwhelming debuts of titles including The Front Room, Afraid, and even Speak No Evil. While the latter title has already risen to a robust worldwide total of $42 million, Afraid earned Blumhouse one of its lowest opening weekends in nine years and The Front Room earned the lowest opening weekend yet for a wide release horror movie in 2024.

The prospects for the genre may turn around before the end of the year when October properly ramps up in the lead-up to Halloween with the upcoming franchise releases Terrifier 3 and Smile 2. The robust performance of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice also shows that horror is still performing well in theaters. However, original horror projects for the latter half of the year have yet to strike upon a hit on the level of Longlegs or Late Night with the Devil.

Transformers One underperforming in its opening weekend shows that not every franchise title has the ability to conquer the marketplace, either. However, the prospects for animation seem stronger moving forward, as the following weekend sees the release of DreamWorks’ The Wild Robot, which is still showing potential in early tracking. Franchise filmmaking could also rebound quickly, as October sees the release of two sequels to massive superhero hits in Joker: Folie à Deux and Venom: The Last Dance.

Source: Deadline