The 1986 animated film Transformers: The Movie has hit cinemas again as part of a limited re-release to celebrate its 40th anniversary. The film, which famously kills off a number of fan-favourite Transformers characters in a massive, opening battle, only made around $5.5 million during its original release against a $6 million production budget and was deemed a failure by Hasbro. However, the film has remained a cult favourite amongst fans thanks to its straightforward, action-oriented storyline, hard-rocking soundtrack and, obviously, its ludicrous death count.
The re-release has so far notched up another $5 million worldwide, with its theatrical run extended into October. The film's success has been put down to a popular toy line - Studio Series 86 - released over the past few years with ultra-screen-accurate versions of the movie characters (apart from Astrotrain, no idea what they were thinking there), but also the sad passing of voice actor Peter Cullen last month. Cullen voices both Optimus Prime and Ironhide in the movie. The franchise has also had a huge comeback success in comics recently, with Skybound Entertainment releasing massive compendiums of the original 1980s Marvel Comics run (including an adaptation of the movie and multiple tie-in stories, like the classic Target: 2006 and The Legacy of Unicron) and launching its own comic book in "the Energon Universe," which has become the biggest-selling Transformers comic since the 1980s and is now being developed as an animated series for television.
These successes, moderate though they are, may revitalise Hasbro's interest in the brand, which has flagged slightly after the disappointing performance of the last two theatrical movies in the franchise, Rise of the Beasts in 2023 and Transformers: One in 2024, despite the latter being very good and the best Transformers film since Bumblebee in 2017.
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