For a while, the 'Transformers' movies were unstoppable financially...so what caused them to lose their pop culture dominance?

With the benefit of hindsight, the Michael Bay Transformers movies feel like strange fever dreams. Was everyone on the planet enamored with a franchise that featured characters like The Twins? Were we all just over the moon for movies that thought middle-aged women accidentally eating pot brownies was still a novel source of humor? Did that first Transformers movie jettison the character Arcee because explaining the existence of women robots would’ve been too complicated but thought Bumblebee urinating on-screen wouldn’t raise questions? The disjointed nature of these features means they now, looked at in the reviewer mirror, mostly just provide a blueprint for what big-budget movies shouldn’t do.

The Michael Bay Transformers movies are not “vintage” by any means, but they already seem like relics from a different era, like beach movies of the 1960s or star vehicles for Pauly Shore. But there was a reason for their initial popularity beyond just people being excited to see movies with fast cars and scantily clad ladies. Similarly, there were also apparent reasons for why this saga came to a grinding halt in its popularity in 2017 with Transformers: The Last Knight.

To understand why Transformers first gained so much popularity as a film franchise, you must remember when the initial Transformers film premiered. This Michael Bay directorial effort debuted in the Summer of 2007, which was largely dominated by sequels. Third entries in the Spider-Man and Rush Hour franchises opened and closed the season, respectively, while new Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean installments dominated the box office. These all weren’t just sequels, but new entries in franchises that had been running for quite a while now. Something that offered visuals and spectacle that were even just a bit different from the norm, even just by comparison to Shrek the Third, was bound to have some novelty.

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There was also something extra special about Transformers and its connections to 1980s pop culture. In a world dominated by Stranger Things and countless other homages to the 1980s, it can seem odd to remember a time when that wasn’t the default era to evoke for nostalgia dollars. But in the 2000s, the 1970s were the go-to decade for people yearning for the past. Austin Powers in Goldmember, Starsky & Hutch, and I Am Legend were just a few examples of big 2000s big-screen movies that were either set in the 1970s or based on source material from that era. By instead evoking the following decade with the presence of Optimus Prime and Megatron, Transformers separated itself from other nostalgia-fueled movies of the time.

Then there were the protagonists and the world they inhabited. The first Transformers focused on a pair of teenagers, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and Mikela Banes (Megan Fox), getting caught up in a robotic war. The duo inhabited a world that may have involved massive mechanical beings but also was decidedly modern and involved entities like eBay or the desperate pursuit of your first automobile. While many 2000s blockbusters, like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, took place in fantastical worlds far removed from reality, Transformers was all about reminding people of everyday America.

Granted, it’s up for debate how successful that element was in making Witwicky and Banes believable human beings. Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee leaped off the screen as emotionally tangible creations even without abrupt Burger King product placement, after all. Plus, the lack of prominent roles for marginalized groups like queer individuals or people of color meant that Transformers was only evoking a sense of “realism” for a slice of the movie-going public. But the perceived success of this aspect is beside the point. The important thing is that this was another way Transformers differentiated itself from other blockbusters.

But potentially the most pivotal way Transformers earned goodwill from the public was through a detail all too common in 2000s American pop culture. Transformers doesn’t just center on plucky teenagers or robots. It’s also got a subplot dedicated exclusively to a gaggle of U.S. soldiers trying to get back home. They’re constantly portrayed as heroic, and eventually an even bigger squadron of servicemen and women are called in to help stop the Decepticons in the finale.

This fit right in with the depiction of the U.S. military might in the wake of 9/11, with American pop culture delivering country songs, movies, TV shows, and everything in between to reinforce how soldiers could do anything. The omnipresent patriotism was, shockingly, not a focal point of most other summer 2007 blockbusters. Spider-Man did land in front of an American flag in Spider-Man 3, but Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, for instance, didn’t pause its plot for a recruitment ad. Transformers didn’t just deliver the explosions people wanted from a summertime blockbuster. It also unfurled a streak of “rah-rah-rah” patriotism that fit right in with the depiction of the U.S. military in the 2000s.

On top of all that, there was also the naughty streak of these movies that could make younger audiences feel like they were getting away with something while watching a 140-minute commercial for Hasbro toys. An extended discussion of masturbation is the crux of one of the biggest comic scenes of the original Transformers, while another robot comments on Witwicky’s “pheromone” levels. Adult viewers who’ve watched far funnier R-rated comedies will dismiss such moments as weird bursts of juvenilia. For younger viewers, though, it left a lasting impact that Transformers wasn’t talking down to them. This movie may have starred talking robots, but it was also, somehow, for grown-ups.

All of these elements coalesced to ensure that the original Transformers wasn’t just a massive hit, but also something that resonated as personally important for many viewers. The goodwill of that inaugural installment ensured the box office success of its two immediate successors, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Shockingly, the Autobots and Decepticons were not proving to be a fly-by-night success. Each of the first three Transformers movies made more than their predecessor, with Dark of the Moon exceeding $1 billion worldwide. With such extraordinary financial resilience, it truly looked like, even just for a brief moment, that the Transformers were here to stay.

But, to quote Prometheus, “A King has his reign…and then he dies.” After 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction still cleared $1.1 billion worldwide, the 2017 installment Transformers: The Last Knight made only $605.4 million globally. A staggering step down from its predecessors, it would eventually be revealed that The Last Knight lost over $100 million for Paramount Pictures. The days of these robots being an excuse to print money had come to a sudden close. But why? What happened that led to audiences turning their back on this franchise?

For starters, the lead of the Transformers films from Age of Extinction onward was Mark Wahlberg’s Cade Yeager. A middle-aged adult, he was way outside the age range of the target demo for Transformers movies and was way more in line age-wise with other summer 2014 blockbuster protagonists. Younger characters, like Yeager’s daughter or Isabel Merced’s scrappy orphan from The Last Knight, only appeared on-screen in one installment each and never had very prominent roles. Transformers got its start appealing to youth fantasies and lost its way abandoning that target demo (it’s no surprise Bumblebee served as a mini rebound for the franchise with its teen girl protagonist).

Also notable was that, by 2017, pop culture was no longer yearning for properties that were steeped in appreciation for the 1980s. Once The Last Knight hit theaters, Stranger Things had already premiered, Super 8 was six years old at this point, and even the first It movie,, which updated the setting of its source material to the age of leg-warmers, was less than three months away from debuting. The media landscape was covered in properties rooted in the iconography of 1980s media. The Last Knight’s underwhelming performance confirmed that the Transformers movies were no longer the only ones tickling a very specific nostalgia bone.

The Last Knight indicated a shift in tone for the franchise that likely alienated whatever fan base these movies had. The film still featured Anthony Hopkins commenting on how the film’s protagonist hasn’t been getting any “whoopee,” but by and large, this feature abandoned sexual humor. Levity now came in the form of more generic bursts of comedy while the focus was primarily on fleshing out the lore of a secret society of humans that have been working with Transformers for decades. General moviegoers could forgive a lot in these movies, but forgoing the action for exposition, not to mention eschewing the gags that made these films feel “dangerous” for adolescent moviegoers, was inexcusable.

It didn’t help that, by the time The Last Knight rolled around, most of the big recognizable elements of Transformers mythology had been exploited. With previous sequels making use of Grimlock, Soundwave, Arcee, and other famous Transformers faces to distinguish themselves to viewers, there were few other figures for the franchise to introduce to make people excited about yet another sequel. The closest The Last Knight got to bringing in a major new player was the presence of Unicron, but he was absent from the marketing and is never fully seen in the film. Whereas the Marvel Cinematic Universe is constantly finding new major characters to keep the stories fresh, The Last Knight saw the Transformers saga running on empty when it came to new players.

But perhaps the biggest change here was just that what had been fresh in 2007 was now old hat in 2017. Transformers arrived a decade earlier a rare non-sequel in a sea of third and fifth installments. In the summer of 2017, The Last Knight was the fifth Transformers movie arriving on the heels of the very first solo Wonder Woman film and just a few weeks before the historical drama Dunkirk invaded theaters. It wasn’t that audiences rejected sequels that summer (the sixth Spider-Man film made over $800 million that July, after all), but the fresh hits of the season just reinforced how stale the Transformers saga had become. Now 10 years in, The Last Knight reflected a franchise that had already become a relic.

Of course, given Hollywood’s penchant for making money off of anything and everything, it shouldn’t be a shock that Paramount Pictures isn’t giving up on the Transformers saga. After the 2018 spin-off Bumblebee delivered decent box office on a much smaller budget than its predecessors, the Transformers movies proper will return with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts in June 2023. Only time will tell if this installment can restore the franchise to its former financial glory. For now, though, the box office run of the saga from Transformers to The Last Knight makes it apparent why audiences saw more than met the eye with these movies at first…but also why they eventually abandoned the series in droves.

Douglas Laman is a life-long movie fan, writer and Rotten Tomatoes approved critic whose writing has been published in outlets like The Mary Sue, Fangoria, The Spool, and ScarleTeen. Residing both on the Autism spectrum and in Texas, Doug adores pugs, showtunes, the Wes Anderson movie Fantastic Mr. Fox, and any music by Carly Rae Jepsen.

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