Box office Worldwide Transformers: Age of Extinction grossed $245.4 million in the United States and Canada and $859.8 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $1.105 billion, against a budget of $210 million. and is the only film of 2014 to do so at the box office worldwide. Worldwide, in its opening weekend, the film earned $302.1 million, which is the
28th-highest ever, the highest in 2014, and the second-largest for
Paramount behind
Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($382.4 million). It was the
10th-highest-grossing film worldwide and the
highest-grossing film of 2014 during its theatrical run.
North America Transformers: Age of Extinction is the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2014 in the U.S. and Canada. It was released on June 27, 2014, in across 4,233 theaters in North America. It earned $8.75 million from Thursday late-night run, which was the fifth-biggest of 2014. On Friday, the film grossed an additional $31.25 million bringing its total day gross to $41.6 million, including $10.7 million from IMAX 3D theatres. In its opening weekend, the film earned $100,038,390 setting an opening record of 2014 (overtaken by
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 with $121.9 million), which is the fourth-highest opening for Paramount, and the fifth-highest for a film released in June. The opening-weekend audience was evenly split among those under and over the age of 25 (with 58%), male (64%), and under 18 (27%). The film remained at the summit for two consecutive weekends before being overtaken by
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in its third weekend. It also crossed the $200 million mark in its third weekend, becoming the fifth film of 2014 to do so. The film closed its theatrical run on October 9, 2014 and earned a total of $245,439,076, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2014 in the U.S.
Outside North America Outside North America, it is the highest-grossing film of 2014, and the sixth-highest-grossing film.
Transformers: Age of Extinction earned $202.1 million in its opening weekend from 37 countries in 10,152 screens, which is 35% bigger than
Dark of the Moon and marking the biggest international opening of 2014 (breaking
X-Men: Days of Future Pasts record set one month prior). It scored the biggest IMAX international opening weekend with $16.6 million from 266 theaters (overtaken by
Jurassic World). The film topped the box office outside North America for four consecutive weekends despite coinciding with the
2014 FIFA World Cup before being overtaken by
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in its fifth weekend. International openings of over $5 million occurred in South Korea ($21.7 million), Brazil ($16.5 million), Germany ($11.2 million), Australia ($9.6 million), France ($8.8 million), Taiwan ($8.1 million), Malaysia ($6.7 million), Japan ($6.4 million), the Philippines ($5.7 million), India ($5.35 million), Hong Kong ($5.1 million), and Italy ($5 million). The film set an all-time IMAX opening record with $9.7 million. After five days of its release,
Age of Extinction surpassed its North American run with $134.5 million. In China, the film earned an additional $50.9 million in its second weekend for a total of $212.8 million. In only 10 days of its release, it became the
highest-grossing film in China with $222.74 million, thus overtaking
Avatars previous record. Adding to the film's revenue and popularity were product placements of Chinese brands edited into the movie specifically for Chinese audiences. It became the
highest-grossing film in China, with $301–$320 million in revenue surpassing 2009's record set by
Avatar ($204 million), until it was surpassed by
Furious 7 in 2015 over $390 million. It is also the first movie in China to gross more than $300 million at the box office. A large part of the success in China has been attributed to the large fan base there and because of its
accompanying animated TV series—which ran during the 1980s and 1990—was one of the highest-quality TV programs at that time which resulted in many children getting attached to it. Transformers toy merchandising was one of the first successful cases by a foreign company in China at its time, its line of transforming robot toys was highly sought-after, especially by boys. At the end of its theatrical run outside North America, the film earned $858,600,000 which is 77.8% of its total gross. In total earnings, the highest revenue came from China ($301 million), Russia ($45.2 million), South Korea ($43.3 million), Germany ($38.2 million), Mexico ($33.5 million), the UK ($33.1 million) and Australia ($24.9 million).
Authenticity over North American box office opening The $100 million opening announced for
Transformers: Age of Extinction is disputed within the industry. According to
Rentrak—which has a direct line into the vast majority of theatres in the United States and Canada to track actual ticket sales—about 4,100 of the 4,233 theatres playing the film generated $95.9 million. The projected total from the Rentrak sales data would put the opening three-day weekend gross at around $97.5 million. For
Transformers to have crossed the $100 million threshold, it would have needed to gross more than the nationwide average in the theatres not tracked by Rentrak. Some media outlets have elected to go with the Rentrak figure.
Critical response On
Rotten Tomatoes,
Transformers: Age of Extinction has an approval rating of based on reviews and an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "With the fourth installment in Michael Bay's blockbuster
Transformers franchise, nothing is in disguise: Fans of loud, effects-driven action will find satisfaction, and all others need not apply." On
Metacritic, the film has a score of 32 out of 100 based on 38 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Richard Roeper gave the film a "D", saying that "the longer the movie goes on, the less interesting it becomes; it just wears you down. As we were finally reaching the 165-minute mark, all that noise and fury was about as exciting as the special effects in an
Ed Wood movie." Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone gave the film zero out of four stars, calling it "the worst and most worthless
Transformers movie yet."
A. O. Scott of
The New York Times said in his review that "The story is scaffolding for the action and like every other standing structure, it is wrecked in a thunderous shower of metal, glass, masonry, and earth."
Clarence Tsui of
The Hollywood Reporter commented on his review that it "barely skirts the idea that humankind and planet Earth are about to be totally annihilated. What is extinguished is the audience's consciousness after being bombarded for nearly three hours with overwrought emotions ('There's a missile in the living room!' Tessa hollers — twice), bad one-liners, and battles that rarely rise above the banal. A trio of editors make a technical marvel out of the fight scenes, but can do little to link the story's multiple threads into something coherent." Roth Cornet of
IGN gave the film a score of 6.3 out of 10, praising the "slightly darker/surprising tone and Lockdown" and his ship while criticizing the "logic/script issues and long running time." Joe Neumaier of the
New York Daily News gave the film one out of five stars, commenting that "If the 'human scenes' all reek of adolescent dialogue and dopey
snark masquerading as character development, it's a toss-up if that's better or worse than seeing clattering collections of
caliginous junk."
Variety called the movie "a splendidly patriotic film, if you happen to be Chinese." They lamented the film's slipshod production and said that Michael Bay "crossed the line into self-parody".
Controversy A subplot and specific scene in Age of Extinction have garnered controversy since its release and ongoing notoriety for more than a decade. In the film, 17-year-old Tessa is dating 20-year-old Shane, which would be illegal should the two engage sexually in several U.S. states but not in Texas (where much of the film is based) due to a
Romeo and Juliet law — which generally protects against prosecution when someone over the age of 18 has sex with someone underage so long as both parties consented and the age gap is within a certain range. The film calls attention to the gray area, as in one scene Shane is shown to be perpetually carrying a printed copy of Texas's age of consent laws in his wallet. "If only they had spent as much time justifying the plot as they did for having sex with a minor," joked the
Honest Trailers YouTube channel at the time of release. Reflecting on the scene in 2019 with
The Hollywood Reporter, and claiming that it wasn't in the original script, Reynor recalled "When you look at the culture of it now, especially given the advent of the #MeToo era, yeah, it's definitely a problematic joke." Observers have noted that the controversy could have been avoided through a simple script revision to change Tessa's age.
Accolades ==Sequel==