Summary

• The box office performance of the Transformers franchise has greatly sured that of the G.I. Joe franchise, leading Paramount to explore a crossover between the two.
• Three individual Transformers movies have made more money than all of the G.I. Joe movies combined, highlighting the difference in their box office success.
• The Transformers 8 film, which will feature a crossover with G.I. Joe, has the potential to achieve box office success and pave the way for a standalone G.I. Joe film in the future.

The Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' ending to tell audiences that a Transformers and G.I. Joe crossover is officially happening. The exciting tease directly set up Transformers 8 and a chance to reboot the G.I. Joe movie franchise as part of Transformers' new continuity.

The G.I. Joe tease in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts flipped Paramount's original plans for such a crossover. The studio originally envisioned putting some Transformers in G.I. Joe 3 several years before, but the movie never fully materialized, forcing them to reconfigure plans for the epic team-up. Now, it will be the G.I. Joe characters who the Transformers franchise, instead of the Autobots being used to prop up another G.I. Joe reboot movie. There are certainly many factors that went into this decision, but a key reason likely was the franchise's difference at the box office.

The Transformers Movie Franchise Has Made More Than Seven Times As Much Money As G.I. Joe

The Transformers and G.I. Joe franchises have had very different levels of success at the box office over the years. Through the seven Transformers movies that have been released, the franchise has grossed over $5.2 billion at the box office worldwide (via The Numbers). This gives each installment in the franchise an average global haul of $754 million, which is incredibly impressive. However, G.I. Joe's box office performance has not been nearly as stellar, leading Paramount to make the decision for the next iteration of the Joes to be ing characters in the Transformers movies.

Paramount has released three G.I. Joe movies over the years, each with varying levels of box office success. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and G.I. Joe: Retaliation performed moderately well, making over $300 million each. However, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins bombed at the box office after making only $34 million worldwide. This means the G.I. Joe franchise has a $712 million box office total (via The Numbers). The Transformers franchise has made seven times as much as G.I. Joe at the box office, with even each movie averaging a higher gross than G.I. Joe's collective total.

There has never been an idea that the G.I. Joe franchise is bigger than or even on par with Transformers, but the difference between them at the box office is nonetheless surprising. Both movie franchises are based on wildly popular toys and cartoons from the 1980s, so their being part of Hollywood's age of nostalgia in the 2000s/2010s made sense. However, it is clear based on the box office that while Transformers found its audience through becoming a massive action blockbuster franchise, G.I. Joe could not replicate the same level of success.

Three Transformers Movies Have Made More Than All G.I. Joe Movies Combined

G.I. Joe's $712 million box office total over the years becomes a bit more concerning for Paramount when the performance of individual Transformers movies is factored in. Regardless of if the studio was pleased with the early box office results from G.I. Joe, the collective total has been sured by three different Transformers movies on their own. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was the first movie to beat G.I. Joe's box office total. The 2009 sequel made $836 million at the box office two months before Paramount launched the G.I. Joe franchise.

The other Transformers sequels to beat G.I. Joe's franchise box office came with the third and fourth installments. Transformers: Dark of the Moon became the first entry in the franchise to make over $1 billion, a mark that the G.I. Joe franchise has never come close to hitting. Transformers: Age of Extinction's release in 2014 also saw the franchise secure another $1 billion box office hit. The fact that Paramount kept watching singular Transformers movies make more than the entire G.I. Joe franchise ed for left the studio to consider alternate options for how to continue, prompting crossover discussions.

Every G.I. Joe Movie Has Made Less Than Transformers' Lowest-Grossing Movie

The difference in the G.I. Joe and Transformers franchise's box office performance is more astounding when looking at the lowest-grossing entry in Paramount's $5.2 billion franchise. ' box office underperformed and set a new franchise record low. The 2023 movie only made $437 million worldwide, coming in even lower than Bumblebee's $465 million performance. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' box office is certainly disappointing for the Transformers franchise considering how well many of the previous movies performed. But, G.I. Joe would be blessed with such a haul.

Each G.I. Joe movie's box office is lower than Transformers' lowest-grossing movie. Using Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' $437 million total as the benchmark, all G.I. Joe movies fall well short. G.I. Joe: Retaliation comes the closest to beating the 2023 movie, but it is still over $60 million shy. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is over $130 million short too. Meanwhile, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins does not even compare with a difference of over $400 million. If the lowest-grossing Transformers movie is still bigger than every G.I. Joe movie, the crossover had to be in Transformers 8.

Transformers 8 Can Finally Help G.I. Joe Achieve Box Office Success

Now that Paramount has put plans in motion for the G.I. Joe and Transformers crossover in Transformers 8, the IP will finally have a chance to achieve some level of box office success. The Transformers movies have always been strong performers at the box office, and the relative goodwill towards Transformers: Rise of the Beasts should be good for the sequel. The fact that Transformers 8 will also benefit from the hype of seeing Autobots and G.I. Joes finally crossover on the big screen will certainly help. This should ensure Transformers 8's box office delivers a sizable haul.

Even if Transformers 8 merely matches or barely outperforms its predecessor's $437 million box office, that would still be a bigger total than anything the G.I. Joe franchise has experienced. This would be great news for Paramount and G.I. Joe fans, as it could give the studio confidence to move forward with a new standalone film for the team. After introducing them in the Transformers franchise, a movie focused on the rebooted team could find its own success at the box office since audiences will already be familiar with the characters. Plus, Autobots could still cameo as well.

Source: The Numbers [1 & 2]