Editorial: Have Hasbro & Paramount Peaked With Their TRANSFORMERS Movies? Toy Shelves Say Yes



There is a thing called franchise fatigue that has been circling around a few movie franchises over the past few years. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise saw a little bit of fatigue as well as with the Spider-Man franchise. While it is tough to prove this fatigue based solely on box office performance numbers, it could easily be seen on toy shelves in retailers across the country.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hit theaters earlier this year and when you looked around at toy shelves, you can still see a tremendous about of action figures remaining for the previous movie. And now there are still filled peg hooks of figures for the sequel. The same can be said about Transformers and its latest film.

While Transformers: Age of Extinction has made over $1 billion in worldwide box office sales, it has performed under the ticket sales numbers of its predecessor, Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Same with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and its ticket sales compared to its previous film.

But before Age of Extinction came out, there were still peg hooks in toy sections with Dark of the Moon toys. Toy collectors call these "peg warmers" because they just sit on a peg hook keeping it warm for its eventual replacement when those toys finally go on deep discount and clearance.

The point still remains that Dark of the Moon figures were present while toy shelves and hooks slowly started getting in Age of Extinction toys. Now, when you look at your local Toys R Us or Target or Walmart all you see is a full Transformers section filled with toys no one cares about or is buying. Especially when you look at and compare how empty toy sections are for Guardians of the Galaxy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles right now.

This is a big problem for one of the largest toy manufacturers on the planet because while Hasbro gets some of the box office profits from the Paramount-licensed Transformers films, Hasbro makes huge profit on all the toy sales. Of course this holiday season will help clear out the Age of Extinction toy sections everywhere, in theory, but as of right now it seems like Transformers fans (adults and kids) are not interested in them.

Fans, kids and collectors are not buying into these Transformers toys for plot less, mind numbing, action-filled and explosion frenzied movies. Director Michael Bay really can't be fully blamed for this because he doesn't right the scripts but the real issue is that Hasbro executives need to consider this franchise fatigue before green lighting Transformers 5.

In my being a life long Transformers fan opinion... Hasbro and Paramount need to take the Transformers franchise back to its roots instead of moving forward with the current incarnation of the alien robots. Focus more on plot and story instead of robots making things explode. I am no expert in the matter of writing treatments, screenplays and scripts but even I have a great idea to save the franchise that Hasbro should consider. But then again, most Generation 1 Transformers fans could probably put together a better Transformers story than what's been seen in the past few movies, so I digress.




Related Posts: TRANSFORMERS ROBOT IN DISGUISE: Animated Series' Season 1 Trailer Debuts

Same Old Song and Dance: Michael Bay Believes He Will Pass TRANSFORMERS 5 Off to Another Director


Review: TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION is Action Packed But a New Coat of Paint Can't Cover Up Franchise Issues


Please note that this editorial is based on toy observations and box office performance trends and not any insider information or info from Hasbro and/or Paramount.