Bumblebee box office: How much has Bumblebee made at the box office?

The plot of the new Bumblebee movie begins in 1987 and is the sixth movie in the franchise (though the first, chronologically speaking). On the run, Bumblebee the Autobot seeks refuge in a junkyard in a small California beach town. Charlie, on the brink of turning 18 years old and trying to find her place in the world, soon discovers the battle-scarred and broken Bumblebee When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns that this is no ordinary yellow Volkswagen.

How much has Bumblebee made at the box office?

According to Deadline, Bumblebee is looking to a Thursday evening total between £1.58 to £1.97 million ($2 m-$2.5 m) according to “industry predictions.”

The Transformers prequel was likely looking to capitalise on America’s school holidays, which began Thursday afternoon.

Bumblebee had showtimes starting at 5pm and 15 percent of five to 12-year-olds off school on Thursday.

ComScore also reported 78 percent of Universities have started their winter holiday.

The demographic for Bumblebee is decidedly different to its predecessors.

For The Guardian, Ben Child wrote: “Instead of being an object of desire for the saga’s presumably mostly male and teenage audience, the tomboyish Charlie Watson is presented through a filter borrowed from 1980s teen movies such as Karate Kid, Risky Business and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

“The truth is that Transformers never really needed sex in the first place – certainly not the leering, lascivious kind served up in the early movies.

“Transformers, as Bumblebee seems set to prove, looks a lot more comfortable as a PG offering.”

Reviews chime with this sentiment, and so far Bumblebee holds an impressive 94 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Liz Shannon Miller wrote for IndieWire: “Fans of the classic Transformers will be thrilled by many of the touches here.

“But there is also now an entire generation of kids who are going to get to watch a girl drive, with a smile on her face.”

For Entertainment Weekly, Leah Greenblatt wrote: “Bumblebee brings something even more important – and actually transforming – to the series: a sense of humour, and a heart.”

Bumblebee had an estimated production budget of £78m – £106.4 m ($100 m – $135 m).

This budget comes in well below previous Transformers movies, which all tallied around £157.7 m ($200 m).

Bumblebee is also the highest rated Transformers movie on both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

Which proves you don’t need a huge budget and a leery lens, all you need is a woman to write a screenplay and a coming of age story which doesn’t sexualise its protagonist.

As Kristen Page-Kirby wrote for the Washington Post: “Bumblebee tones down everything that made its predecessors weak, while adding humour, emotion and a surprising amount of heart.”

Bumblebee is out in UK cinemas on December 24, 2018.