Paramount Pictures recently announced that its latest movie "Transformers: Age of Extinction" opened in domestic box office at at $100.038 million. The news appeared to have silenced critics who have panned the latest Autobots-Decepticons installment from director Michael Bay. However, Deadline cited sources who claimed that although the movie did open well in the box office, it did not clock in at $100 million.
One distribution head at a major studio said, "I don't get get it. Is it just arrogance? What is the point of inflating your box-office numbers? So they can claim the first $100M movie opening of the year? Oh please, who cares? It's a great opening anyway."
A Paramount insider who have knowledge of the financials told the movie blog that the news actually served a higher purpose, at least for the film studio's internal workforce. According to the insider, there has been concerns of late that the company would be having more layoffs should the fourth installment of the "Transformers" film franchise tanked at the box office. Tanked, meaning, if it did not hit the $100 million gross mark.
One distribution executive chimed in and explained why the latest "Transformers" are might as well doctored, "Looking at Rentrak, at this time, the average for the three-days is $22.964M, representing a total gross for three days of $97.76M. Rentrak collected 97 percent of the grosses for the three days. In my humble opinion, it would be impossible for $100M to be reported."
Deadline said that public companies like Paramount are under SEC guidelines to comply with disclosure requirements, which means that the film studio should be truthful with the numbers they announce not only to the public, but to its shareholders as well.
A Paramount spokeswoman said about the allegations, "We reported our number based on the estimates we received from the theaters this morning. This is our final number."
