The July 4th weekend saw the release of director Michael Bay’s third, and final, ‘Transformers’ flick, ‘Dark of the Moon’.  The movie earned the biggest Independence Day opening weekend haul in history, on top of tallying a whopping $418 million globally.  While the overall attendance numbers trail that of both the previous two movies, TF3 will very likely end up being the biggest worldwide hit of the franchise thus far.  Say what you want about the movie itself, but Michael Bay definitely will be leaving the franchise on a high note in terms of dollars earned.  Now the question is, where does the series go now?

DreamWorks and Paramount, the two studios behind the franchise, have a pretty big decision to make as they map out what to do now.  First and foremost being where do you take the storyline?  The studios have three options before them…

#1 Reboot

#2 Prequel

#3 Sequel

Let’s start with numero uno.  A Reboot.  Whether its now or sometime in the future, this is an option the studios will be looking at.  Granted, its highly unlikely that a reboot will be the next course of action, but it is something that will eventually take place with this series. 

Number two is, in my opinion, the most logical step to go because you can use characters who have been killed off as well as eliminating on-screen human characters (often seen as one of the franchise’s biggest weaknesses).  A prequel would focus on the war on Cybertron and if the producers want, they easily hammer out a trilogy based on those events.  While the storylines will probably be pretty basic, what this film (or films) could offer is a treasure trove of eye-candy for moviegoers. 

Number three is the most likely course.  Studio execs are currently in search of a director who can deliver the movie for a summer 2013 release.  With all the major Decepticons being killed in ‘Dark of the Moon’ (on top of Cybertron being destroyed), I think it is a very safe assumption that a sequel would (finally) introduce the planet-sized baddie Unicron.  This character was made popular in the 1986 animated movie and has sort of a cult following.  Fans of Transformers have longed wished to see this character realized in a live-action movie.  Now seems like the perfect opportunity with characters like Megatron, Starscream, Shockwave, The Fallen, and Sentinel Prime all being killed throughout Bay’s trilogy.

This is just my own speculation, but if the studio does go with a sequel expect Unicron to be the baddie.  The beauty of that character is that he can also be used in both a reboot and a prequel. 

By the time TF3 concludes it’s worldwide box office assault, the three films combined will have earned about $2.5 billion, easily making Transformers one of the biggest film franchises in history.  With so many options before them, I expect we’ll see DreamWorks and Paramount to exhaust every one of them before they even think of pulling the plug on this one.

Until next time…

Mr. Box Office$