How Transformers & X-Men are dominating Hollywood

For big film studios, a successful franchise is a goldmine and they’ll do anything to keep the creativity and the cash flowing. Let’s take a look at two films from franchises that have been massively successful and decide which one would come out tops in a head-to-head battle.

Transformers Age of Extinction, which was released in 2014 is the fourth film in the Transformers franchise, with a fifth due to be released in 2017. The film tells the story of Earth in jeopardy. A powerful and evil force is heading our way and only the Autobots, led by Cade Yeager (played by Mark Wahlberg) and Optimus Prime (played by Peter Cullen) can save the planet.

X-Men Days of Future Past was also released in 2014. This film was the seventh in a franchise that started in 2000. The eighth installment is due out in 2016. X-Men Days of Future Past, like its opponent in this face-off, features both a robotic element and a serious threat to our plant. Peter Dinklage plays Dr. Bolivar Trask who creates Sentinels, huge robotic weapons designed to detect mutant humans who he’s sure are out to destroy humanity. However, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) realises the doctor has made a grave error as the mutants soon face extinction. Using time travel and the X-Men themselves, Wolverine saves the day.

The two films were made on similar budgets, of around $200 million each. In terms of Australian box office sales, they were also a close match, with Transformers Age of Extinction just beating its rival: it took $24.9 million to X-Men Days of Future Past’s $21.1 million, despite this being the X-Men franchise’s second highest grossing film of all time. However, when we look at the global figures, we see that Transformers’ director Michael Bay’s film was moving into a different stratosphere. This was the second film in the Transformers franchise to pass the $1 billion mark. Eventually, the film took an enormous $1.1 billion worldwide to the X-Men’s respectable, but much lower $748 million.

Despite this, to really understand how well the films fared, it’s necessary to look at how the figures stacked up for the studios behind them. As shares trading company IG show, it’s the bottom line and the undulating share prices that really mark out the marvelous from the mediocre. 20^th Century Fox, which is owned by 21^st Century Fox, released the X-Men film and subsequently saw its market cap soar to $74.87 billion.

This figure leaves that of Paramount Pictures, who released the Transformers film, in the shade. Paramount Picture’s market cap was $36.72 billion. Meanwhile, company profit told a similar story with Paramount Picture’s profits hitting $4.12 billion to 20^th Century Fox’s $7.03 billion. Whilst both of these movies were unarguably very successful, in the fight of the franchises, the ultimate winner is X-Men Days of Future Past.

To see a a visual representation of these facts, check out the Infographic below:

Watch this space for regular updates in the Movies category on Running Wolf’s Rant.