Bumblebee The Bumblebee Spin-Off Official Thread

[StarLord]

@AVEITWITHJAMON

I get ya.

 

[Flash525]

I'm not quite in touch with the whole Transformers Universe, but is anyone able to explain why (when on Cybertron) they're disguised as Earth vehicles?

 

[Jochimus]

I'm not quite in touch with the whole Transformers Universe, but is anyone able to explain why (when on Cybertron) they're disguised as Earth vehicles?

I wouldn't say they're disguised, necessarily, since the disguise is usually the alternate mode (vehicle, beast, weapon, etc.) rather than the robot mode, but yes, going back to the original cartoon and Marvel comic they had the exact same robot modes starting out on Cybertron - with components of their later Earth alt-mode disguises already - as they did on Earth. I figure this was a time/budget/efficiency thing where they didn't have to worry about creating a second robot mode design for all the characters (as it was, they only created Cybertronian alt-modes for a handful of the '84 characters - Wheeljack, Bumblebee, the Seekers, Soundwave, and Jazz in the cartoon, with Laserbeak oddly enough being the only one whose main robot/beast form was different; and Optimus in the first issue of the comic with that weird combat vehicle mode which later popped up in one of the coloring books [and was retconned out in a later issue with another alt-mode design, a futuristic truck and trailer that still turned into the Earth-mode robot]).
Some of the later comics have tried to correct this - most notably Dreamwave with Don Figueroa's re-designs for the War Within books, and again with IDW - though lately it seems to be strangely fashionable again to give them Earth-vehicle-looking robot modes on Cybertron before they ever get to Earth (like in the current Cyberverse cartoon).

 

[Golgo-13]

Having BB scan the camero at the end is what really messed up the continuity. If he had remained the WV, people would know that this is a reboot. It's like the filmmakers have no idea what they want; obviously there's some sort of retcon going on here because Prime is now on Earth, when in the bay films he doesn't arrive until the present day. That final scene with BB and the camero is what is really going to confuse people...

..and I know Prime is a 'G' but how on earth did he fight his way through the Deception army in the flashback scene...?

 

[2kt09]

..and I know Prime is a 'G' but how on earth did he fight his way through the Deception army in the flashback scene...?

did Optimus use one of his many wing modes?

 

[Golgo-13]

List of TF's I remember:

Brawn
Ratchet
Arcee
Cliffjumper
Wheeljack
Optimus Prime
Sound wave
Ravage
Starscream
Shockwave
Bumblebee
Thunder cracker(?)
Skywarp(?)

And the tunnel in the chase scene; was that a call back to Back to the Future 2, hence the song '55' being played too (as it was in BTTF 2...?)

 

[TheVileOne]

I wouldn't say they're disguised, necessarily, since the disguise is usually the alternate mode (vehicle, beast, weapon, etc.) rather than the robot mode, but yes, going back to the original cartoon and Marvel comic they had the exact same robot modes starting out on Cybertron - with components of their later Earth alt-mode disguises already - as they did on Earth. I figure this was a time/budget/efficiency thing where they didn't have to worry about creating a second robot mode design for all the characters (as it was, they only created Cybertronian alt-modes for a handful of the '84 characters - Wheeljack, Bumblebee, the Seekers, Soundwave, and Jazz in the cartoon, with Laserbeak oddly enough being the only one whose main robot/beast form was different; and Optimus in the first issue of the comic with that weird combat vehicle mode which later popped up in one of the coloring books [and was retconned out in a later issue with another alt-mode design, a futuristic truck and trailer that still turned into the Earth-mode robot]).
Some of the later comics have tried to correct this - most notably Dreamwave with Don Figueroa's re-designs for the War Within books, and again with IDW - though lately it seems to be strangely fashionable again to give them Earth-vehicle-looking robot modes on Cybertron before they ever get to Earth (like in the current Cyberverse cartoon).

I would say this is accurate. It was the 1980s, and while I love the G1 animated series, it was not exactly high quality animation. It looks very dated now.

Even now in animation they cut corners and do what they can to save money. They always try to keep characters on model or the same model. That's why characters wear the same clothes or outfits every day. Giving them new clothes or outfits means spending more money to animate new models, etc. That's why their robot modes basically look the same on Cybertron as they do on Earth, while their vehicle modes on Cybertron and Earth in the G1 animated series were clearly different.

Case in point:

http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/0/09/Bumblebee-CyberToon.jpg

 

[TheVileOne]

did Optimus use one of his many wing modes?

No.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Looks like BumbleBee has a decent chance at going past The Last Knight at the domestic box office. We hafta remember that BumbleBee opened to less than 40% of TLK's adjusted 3 day OW so this is very good news for the franchise as it gets a new lease of life.

We can conclude from the evidence presented in front of us that BumbleBee has very long & sexy legs.

So I'll just continue to er..... stretch this gimmick

Wait, I meant

 

[TheVileOne]

Looks like BumbleBee has a decent chance at going past The Last Knight at the domestic box office. We hafta remember that BumbleBee opened to less than 40% of TLK's adjusted 3 day OW so this is very good news for the franchise as it gets a new lease of life.

We can conclude from the evidence presented in front of us that BumbleBee has very long & sexy legs.

So I'll just continue to er..... stretch this gimmick

The Last Knight only made $130 million domestic, so it's not a huge victory by any stretch of the imagination. Got good reviews, but its numbers are nothing compared to the earlier Michael Bay films.

But this is what Michael Bay ultimately wrought. His style did irreparable damage in the long-term. Admittedly these movies did well at first, but his model was clearly not sustainable.

Meanwhile, it's only made $108 million overseas. The Last Knight still made $475 million internationally.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Got good reviews, but its numbers are nothing compared to the earlier Michael Bay films.

BumbleBee's rumored production budget is in and around 135m. Which is much lower than the later Bayformers (the sequels) joints. BumbleBee will be close to making as much as it's production budget in North America and that's great for it's revenue sources because it'll have a much lower break even point in the domestic box office since it's not exactly skewing heavily to Int'l markets like Bayformers movies.

While I'm not sure if this is right direction for the franchise (certainly not for me as I want to see the money on screen), but it's definitely a good step to stop the steady and alarming decline of the Bayformers. The franchise gets a second life and a sequel is all but assured to increase from this effort.

Meanwhile, it's only made $108 million overseas. The Last Knight still made $475 million internationally.

That's because BumbleBee has a scattered OS rollout. It'll release in a lot overseas countries this weekend which includes China. Paramount has already cashed in for BumbleBee from China since they've sold the rights to Tencent Pictures for a fee (60m). But the important factor is that the movie has great WoM in China so potential sequel/s has great chance to make it big in the middle kingdom.

This movie will make 450m+ on a 135m budget (P&A excluded). That's 3.33x the prod. budget with a very good domestic and overseas ratio/split. They lost Bay (he's still exec producing but that's not as big a deal as it used to be), Wahlberg so they've already saved a huge chunk of after profit participation bonuses. Paramount will make a nice profit out of BumbleBee and the franchise will get back in the good graces of audiences all over the world. Paramount will achieve what they set out to do so that's a win for the studio.

 

[TheVileOne]

BumbleBee's rumored production budget is in and around 135m. Which is much lower than the later Bayformers (the sequels) joints. BumbleBee will be close to making as much as it's production budget in North America and that's great for it's revenue sources because it'll have a much lower break even point in the domestic box office since it's not exactly skewing heavily to Int'l markets like Bayformers movies.

While I'm not sure if this is right direction for the franchise (certainly not for me as I want to see the money on screen), but it's definitely a good step to stop the steady and alarming decline of the Bayformers. The franchise gets a second life and a sequel is all but assured to increase from this effort.

$135 million is still $135 million. And this film hasn't reached that mark yet.

That's because BumbleBee has a scattered OS rollout. It'll release in a lot overseas countries this weekend which includes China. Paramount has already cashed in for BumbleBee from China since they've sold the rights to Tencent Pictures for a fee (60m). But the important factor is that the movie has great WoM in China so potential sequel/s has great chance to make it big in the middle kingdom.

This movie will make 450m+ on a 135m budget (P&A excluded). That's 3.33x the prod. budget with a very good domestic and overseas ratio/split. They lost Bay (he's still exec producing but that's not as big a deal as it used to be), Wahlberg so they've already saved a huge chunk of after profit participation bonuses. Paramount will make a nice profit out of BumbleBee and the franchise will get back in the good graces of audiences all over the world. Paramount will achieve what they set out to do so that's a win for the studio.

In other words, they are going to make even less from whatever this does overseas because they sold off the distribution rights. That's also some major league Hollywood accounting on your part.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

$135 million is still $135 million. And this film hasn't reached that mark yet.

It will. I'll be here when it does reach that mark. If it doesn't I'll eat crow.

In other words, they are going to make even less from whatever this does overseas because they sold off the distribution rights. That's also some major league Hollywood accounting on your part.

No and Paramount has only sold distribution rights in China. They are still on the hook for the rest of foreign territories.

In simple terms, Paramount already has 60m in their coffers from BumbleBee. While Paramount pocketed 57m (net) from TLK but that margin is reduced due to a release cost. BumbleBee doesn't even have that problem since Tencent will be taking care of that. So Paramount will be making more money from BumbleBee in China than they did on TLK (or even MI: Fallout which did 181.2m) even if the former is pulled from the Chinese theaters after one day.

BumbleeBee can get close to 210m from OS-China markets. TLK did 245m from them. I think 85.7% is a great retention rate if we consider that TLK had terrible reception pretty much everywhere.

 

[TheVileOne]

It will. I'll be here when it does reach that mark. If it doesn't I'll eat crow.



No and Paramount has only sold distribution rights in China. They are still on the hook for the rest of foreign territories.

In simple terms, Paramount already has 60m in their coffers from BumbleBee. While Paramount pocketed 57m (net) from TLK but that margin is reduced due to a release cost. BumbleBee doesn't even have that problem since Tencent will be taking care of that. So Paramount will be making more money from BumbleBee in China than they did on TLK even if the former is pulled from the Chinese theaters after one day.

BumbleeBee can get close to 210m from OS-China markets. TLK did 245m from them. I think 85.7% is a great retention percentage if we consider that TLK had terrible reception pretty much everywhere.

P&A still puts the budget probably well over $200 million. I don't see this doing Last Knight overseas numbers.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

P&A still puts the budget probably well over $200 million.

It definitely does. But it'll also be considerably less than what Paramount spent on Bayformers.

I don't see this doing Last Knight overseas numbers.

It won't.

I said 450m (155m less than TLK) so I'm not denying the absolute numbers will be lower but due to the smaller budget and release cost, BumbleBee will be in a better situation financially.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

..and I know Prime is a 'G' but how on earth did he fight his way through the Deception army in the flashback scene...?

Yeah I was wondering that and hoping we would see it, but I just figured another team of Autobots showed up to help him out.

 

[Sithborg]

Saw it yesterday. Enjoyable. Leaned a little too much into the 80's music, and yet cut off The Touch. A lot of the connections to the original felt out of place, and you can kind of see where editing changed things around a bit. I hope they release the Megatron design they had eventually.

As for its box office, I would worry that it isn't really developing solid legs. And with schools going back into session, it is going to be hard for it to gain traction again. That said, the box office isn't a disaster and the reviews should probably encourage Hasbro to attempt to continue with this direction.

 

[Flash525]

Having BB scan the camero at the end is what really messed up the continuity. If he had remained the WV, people would know that this is a reboot. It's like the filmmakers have no idea what they want; obviously there's some sort of retcon going on here because Prime is now on Earth, when in the bay films he doesn't arrive until the present day. That final scene with BB and the camero is what is really going to confuse people...

I wouldn't imagine that too big an obstacle; there's no reason future-bee couldn't be a camero, somewhat a nod to the Bay films whilst not actually linking them up. I've said before (and I'll say it again) but if the guys behind this film (and a Transformers cinematic universe) want to be successful, they're going to have to distance themselves away from Bayformers.

Looks like BumbleBee has a decent chance at going past The Last Knight at the domestic box office. We hafta remember that BumbleBee opened to less than 40% of TLK's adjusted 3 day OW so this is very good news for the franchise as it gets a new lease of life.

The Last Knight only made $130 million domestic, so it's not a huge victory by any stretch of the imagination. Got good reviews, but its numbers are nothing compared to the earlier Michael Bay films. But this is what Michael Bay ultimately wrought. His style did irreparable damage in the long-term. Admittedly these movies did well at first, but his model was clearly not sustainable.

I gotta' agree here. As good as Bumblebee may be, there's a lot of people who probably didn't go and see this one because of the Bayformers trainwreck. A lot of people, especially casual cinema-goers would just assume it's all part of the same thing, and not run the risk of watching that **** again. Bay ruined Transformers. Hopefully this latest instalment will pave the way for something better, I guess only time will tell.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Viacom CEO Says He's Mulling Small Acquisition Targets

Bakish congratulated Paramount for a successful turnaround, using the latest in the Transformers franchise:

Bumblebee, he said, is "solidly profitable" while its predecessor in the summer of 2017 lost more than $100 million.

 

[The Guard]

I'm not quite in touch with the whole Transformers Universe, but is anyone able to explain why (when on Cybertron) they're disguised as Earth vehicles?

I blanked on most of the opening battle sequence because I was trying to figure out why the heck they had them as Earth vehicles.

Unless they were alien vehicles and I missed that, too.

 

[Ninjablade]

Saw this the other night, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I like Bay’s first movie a little bit more, but this was still fun and cute. Would love to see a proper Transformers sequel in this world.

 

[TheVileOne]

They were vehicles on Cybertron, but not quite Earth vehicles. But Optimus' robot mode looked the same as his Earth mode. Basically, it's like the 1980s G1 cartoon. They don't dwell on it too much and just move on.

 

[psylockolussus]

I just watched this yesterday and it was pretty good as a film but NOT the most exciting movie in the series.

 

[BaelaTargaryen]

‘Bumblebee’ Buzzes Past $400M WW – What’s Next For The Autobots

Helmed by Travis Knight, the well-received picture reboots the Transformers series with humor and an emotional connection that’s been fed by great word of mouth. There’s a sequel in development (might that mean a Bumblebee/Optimus Prime buddy movie?). Before that, there’s an animated movie in the works and future iterations of the overall Transformers series that may introduce new characters and bring others along.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Sequel in the works apparently with Prime joining the party.