Transformers Cinematic Universe
Transformers can be said to be a good memory of the childhood of post-80s audiences.
With the boom in Hollywood live-action film adaptations, in 2007, the live-action version of "Transformers" also appeared on the big screen.
With an investment of $150 million and more than $700 million at the box office, the film became the most successful non-sequel commercial blockbuster of the year.
It is for this reason that both Hasbro and Paramount Pictures are hopeful about the development of this film series.
In 2009, "Transformers 2: The Comeback" was released, and the film investment increased to $200 million, and the box office revenue increased to 800 million again. The third installment in the series, Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon, released three years later, is by far the highest-grossing film in the series, reaching $1.12 billion.
The exact opposite of the box office trend is the film's word of mouth, the increasingly chaotic plot of the film, coupled with the exaggerated performances of the actors playing chicken blood, (yes, I am talking about Shea LaBeouf) to develop the series from critics' verbal criticism to the war of words between fans and audiences.
However, the huge monetary reward makes the series necessary to continue. Director Michael Bay has announced again and again that he has given up directing the series, but again and again he has reneged on his word and once again raised the direction.
In order to save word-of-mouth, "Transformers 4: Extinction Rebirth" replaced the main actor and changed the image setting of the Autobots, but the shortcomings of the film have not changed, and they are also bluntly filled with Chinese elements. Although the box office remained at $1.1 billion, ratings continued to decline.
It wasn't until Transformers 5: The Last Knight that audiences finally stopped buying it, with $210 million invested and just $600 million at the box office. This series of films suffered a total street thump.
Realizing that he could not continue to face the difficulties, Paramount turned to developing a series of spin-off films, and the audience-loved "Bumblebee" was independent and put on the big screen.
This time, Michael Bay finally threw out the hot potato, directed by Nike's youngest son, Taravis Knight.
Taraves has said that in the case of Transformers 5's full-scale street fight, taking over the Hornet independent film can be said to be a mountain of pressure. If he failed, he had to abandon the path of directing and go home to inherit the Nike company founded by his father and tens of billions of dollars in assets.
It is true that the hearer weeps, and the listener is sad.
"Bumblebee" did change some of the shortcomings in "Transformers", and the film's reputation has also improved a little. Because of the proper budget control, Paramount is very satisfied with the film's reputation and market box office performance, and has officially started the sequel development work.
At the same time, Paramount also announced that it would develop Optimus Prime's solo film.
On the other hand, the Transformers series of movies has not been abandoned, just recently held at the Transformers kick-off meeting, the film announced the name of the new film as "Transformers 7: The Rise of the Super Warriors".
Yes, you heard it right, without Transformers 6, it's just Transformers 7.
The film launched a new creative cast, and Michael Bay finally stopped directing, and will be directed by Stephen Kapoor Jr., the director of "Quay: Heroes Rise Again", starring powerful young actors Anthony Ramos and Dominic Fishback.
The story is set in 1994 and will serve as the starting point for a new chapter. War on Earth is no longer just about Autobots and Decepticons, but more characters such as Big Macs, Primordial Beasts, and Dragon Heads will join in, revealing more dimensional Transformers.
2. The Fast and Furious Universe
To say that the most popular action series of the moment, "Fast and Furious" is definitely at the top.
Growing from a mid-budget niche film to the framework of today's cinematic universe, the series itself has a valuable spirit.
In 2001, Fast and Furious was released, and the story was very simple, a young detective who went undercover for racing talent and went undercover to steal the car. At that time, "Fast and Furious" did not often put "family" on its lips.
But the young actors and sexy racing cars dazzled the audience, and the racing chase grabbed the audience's heart and their wallets.
The film's $38 million investment paid off $200 million, which led Universal to immediately plan a sequel and double the investment.
However, due to script problems, Van Diesel did not continue to star. The film maintained the production standards of the series and also received more box office.
With the success of the first two episodes, Universal intends to invest more money to continue the success.
In order to pursue a fresher visual experience, the filmmakers decided to take advantage of the trend of "Head Text D" to move the story scene to Tokyo, and even added the word drift to the name. It is precisely for this reason that Chinese director Lin Yibin has become the first choice for directing this film.
The story of Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift was originally set to revolve around Van Diesel's previous role, but he eventually withdrew from the cast, for which the writers had to revise the script and design a new character, Sean. Van Diesel also made a cameo at the end of the film.
It is also due to such large-scale changes that the film has not achieved good results, but Lin Yibin's talent has been favored by the global high-level.
In 2009, with the support of Universal Pictures, all the stars of Fast and Furious returned, and Lin Yibin went all out to create "Fast and Furious 4", and the series began to really take off. The film grossed 360 million.
After that, every two years, the series released a sequel. In 2011, Fast & Furious 5 was released and rose to $620 million at the box office. In 2013, Fast & Furious 6 grossed another $780 million.
At the same time, director Lin Yibin is also famous in Hollywood, with more and more projects in his hands, so he unloads the guide and is taken over by the horror master Wen Ziren.
Towards the end of the filming of "Fast and Furious 7", bad news came, and the lead actor Paul Walker was accidentally killed in a car accident, and the film was postponed. But it is also because of the audience's feelings for Paul's posthumous work that the film has grossed more than $1.5 billion.
After that, Wen Ziren refused to continue directing the series, but returned to his own horror film business, directing "The Conjuring 2".
Fast & Furious 8 was directed by F. Gary Gray, who had previously worked with Van Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, and Jason Statham.
Although the film grossed $1.2 billion at the box office, word-of-mouth was much worse than before, and the series began to decline.
However, there is still a bright part of the film, which is the spark between Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, which is why the series launched the spin-off film Fast and Furious: Special Ops.
Because of the release of this movie, "Fast and Furious" has the prototype to become a movie universe.
Although this sequel has achieved good box office results with the influence of "Fast and Furious", the word of mouth is not good.
The foreshadowing left at the end of the film indicates that this sequel will continue.
This year, Lin Yibin regained the guide tube and returned to direct the series under the re-invitation, but even so, it could not save the decline of "Fast and Furious 9", because of the feud with Van Diesel, Dwayne Johnson did not appear in the film, and Jason Statham only made a cameo in the easter egg at the end of the film.
More importantly, the logic of the film is chaotic, detached from reality, and the speed created by special effects has no passion to speak of. At this time, the box office and word of mouth of this series of movies fell to the bottom.
But Universal's grab for this gold mine is not over, and in the future, this series will also have two canonical films "Fast and Furious 10" and 11, and it is now confirmed that they will be directed by Lin Yibin. I don't know if after experiencing 9 failures, I will return to the top.
In terms of sequels, "Special Operations 2" is in preparation and is expected to be released in 2023.
The villain Sever, played by Charlize Theron, will launch a solo independent film, as well as an unspecified female novel.
Fast & Furious is currently a collection of 9-episode series and 1 spin-off film, and with the release of these spin-offs, it will also grow into a true cinematic universe.
3. Shyamalan Thriller Cinematic Universe
Of all the cinematic universes, this should be the most special one.
There are only three films in this cinematic universe, and they come from the same director and screenwriter.
These three movies also tell a story about superheroes, but they are completely different from the superheroes of Marvel and DC.
In 2000, "Undead Robbery" was released, the film begins with a train accident, the only surviving David, under the guidance of Mr. Glass Ilya, who suffers from congenital fracture disease, discovers his extraordinary ability and becomes a raincoat hero, and then discovers that Mr. Glass is the real demon and sends him to a mental hospital.
The film redefines demons and heroes, and explores some deep philosophical questions, although it has a superhero movie concept, but it is close to real life, and it is mixed with elements of sci-fi thriller.
But it was originally just a movie.
In 2016, another of Shyamalan's films, Split, was released, based on true events and tells the story of Kevin, a schizophrenic patient with 23 personalities, who kidnapped three teenage girls.
When Kevin evolves the 24th personality, the Beast, he becomes like a beast, bursting with combat power.
At the end of the film, David, the raincoat hero in "Undead Robbery", reappears, and after 16 years, the two films are linked.
In 2019, "Mr. Glass" was released, in this movie, Mr. Glass Ilya, the Beast Kevin, the raincoat hero David are intertwined, Mr. Glass as a person without superpowers, but with his own brain to control everything.
Three films portray Mr. Glass's obsession with finding heroes, Kevin's uncontrollable enchantment, and David's ordinary superheroes very successfully portrayed. Although there are only three films in this movie universe, Shyamalan's chess game is very large, and these three films are intertwined with each other.
The series is also the only cinematic universe that has ended.
Well, the Hollywood Film Universe has been inventoried by this issue, and the next issue will take stock of China's film universe plan for everyone. Like the little partner, welcome to click a concern, add a collection, waiting for the arrival of the next program.