‘Bumblebee’: Is the ‘Transformers’ Prequel a ‘Batman Begins’ or an ‘X-Men: First Class’?

As of this moment, Bumblebee has earned $22 million domestic and $52m worldwide on a $132m budget. That’s obviously a heck of a lot lower than any prior Transformers opening, but Paramount/Viacom knowingly traded a bigger opening in the summer for longer legs at Christmas. And while the 1980s-set prequel may have been initially greenlit as a spin-off intended to essentially launch a cinematic universe of Transformers movies alongside the ongoing Michael Bay-directed installments, fate worked out differently. Transformers: The Last Knight underwhelmed ($130m domestic and $605m on a $220m budget, compared to $839m, $1.2 billion and $1.1b for the last three sequels) and the “Transformers writers’ room” was scrapped. What started as a second-fiddle prequel/spin-off is now seen as the savior of the franchise.