Paramount & Hasbro’s ‘Transformers One’ Rolling To $30M+ Opening – Box Office Preview

Refresh for more…Paramount Animation and Hasbro Entertainment‘s Transformers One, the first animated Transformers movie in close to forty years, looks to liven up the mid-September box office with a domestic start in the low $30Ms with potential for upside.

Advance ticket sales are solid from Thursday through Saturday: They’re ahead of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem ($28M 3-day), Trolls Band Together ($30M).

Josh Cooley directed what has been described for months as one of Paramount’s highest tested animated movies. The $75M production tells the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron who were once buddies before being sworn enemies. That relationship will impact the fate of Cybertron forever. Voiceover cast includes Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi with Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm.

There are fan previews on Wednesday night at 7PM in PLF and Imax followed by Thursday previews starting at 5PM. Transformers One will be in play at 3,900 sites. Given the fanboy sensibility of the pic, Transformers One is skewing toward dads and sons.

For benchmark purposes, the highest opening for an animated movie in September belongs to Sony’s 2015 Hotel Transylvania 2 which debuted to $48.4M.

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