Realistically, you’d have thought Paramount would have learned its lesson by now after attempts to launch G.I. Joe as a reliable franchise failed three times over, with audiences failing to make it any clearer that they simply aren’t interested in the slightest.
And yet, a light bulb went off in somebody’s head in the boardroom, with this summer’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts concluding with the tease for a crossover that guarantees the Joes a fourth bite at the cherry. The downside is that Steven Caple Jr.’s blockbuster became the lowest-grossing entry in its own saga for the third time in a row, which doesn’t make for encouraging reading.
In effect, the Transformers/G.I. Joe movie is going to be a cross-pollination between an IP that’s fallen on its face at the first hurdle three times over meeting minds with another that’s set a record box office low three times over. A recipe for guaranteed commercial success, it most definitely is not.
Admittedly, Stephen Sommers’ The Rise of Cobra is entertaining in a “live-action Team America but without a shred of irony or self-awareness” kind of way, something Paramount Plus subscribers would appear to be in agreement with after the ludicrous unintentional comedy detonated a new lease of life on the streaming service’s most-watched rankings, per FlixPatrol.
It’s hard to imagine anyone was jumping for joy when another G.I. Joe do-over was announced, but surely another failure must draw the line under Paramount’s relentless stubbornness that the brand will catch on eventually.