Here we go again, targeting millennials! Look, I’m not a fan of the term at all because I think it’s just a way to blame things on 20 and 30-year olds. However, companies love the phrase, and now Hasbro is using it to characterize a potential new hit movie franchise.

After turning the Transformers toys into a billion-dollar movie franchise, Hasbro has its eyes on a new toy: G.I. Joes.

According to the LA Times, Hasbro would like to work with Paramount again to reboot a line of G.I. Joe movies after past G.I. Joe movies were released in 2009 and 2013. Those two movies didn’t do nearly as well in theaters as the Transformers films have done.

G.I. Joe (2009): $678 million in box office revenue

G.I. Joe Retaliation (2013): $375.7 million in box office revenue

To make the new series of G.I. Joe movies more appealing and profitable, Simon Waters, who oversees consumer products for Hasbro Studios, said the company wants to use a “millennial approach” when making the movies.

Whatever that means.

“The world has changed, and I think you’re going to see G.I. Joe changing with it,” Waters said. “There’s going to be a much more contemporary approach to the whole franchise, and that will allow us to develop different characters.”

“We hope to create a head snap. It’s a different kind of ‘Joe’ — one that still resonates with ‘Joe’ fans but brings in an uninitiated audience and expands the audience internationally and domestically,” Chief Content Officer Steve Davis said. 

After the success of the Transformers, Hasbro is hoping new G.I. Joe movies will have enough success to launch movie careers for other Hasbro toys such as ROM, Micronauts, Visionaries, and M.A.S.K.

“It only goes so deep in terms of toys and board games,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com. “But that’s not to say that demand can’t be manufactured on some level. Nostalgia is a big driver.”

Nostalgia is a big driver and that’s what caused me to rewatch the original non-Hasbro G.I. Joe movie Small Soldiers recently.

So, in a sense, is nostalgia just the “millennial approach” Waters was referencing? If so, it hasn’t worked well for all toy movies in the past.

Universal’s 2012 flop Battleship, based off the board game, had a budget of just over $200 million and earned only a little more than $300 million at the box office.

“I will tell you from my heart of hearts, ‘Battleship’ was a great story,” Davis said while also admitting in hindsight he would’ve paid closer attention to the budget, marketing, and release date for the movie.

But while Battleship sunk in theaters, Transformers has continually done extremely well. In fact, Hasbro has announced it will continue working with Paramount on more Transformers movies in the future, including a spin-off focusing on Bumblebee.

Meanwhile, no release date has been set for the first installment of the rebooted G.I. Joe franchise, as it’s still being written.

[Los Angeles Times]

About David Lauterbach

David is a writer for The Comeback. He enjoyed two Men's Basketball Final Four trips for Syracuse before graduating in 2016. If The Office or Game of Thrones is on TV, David will be watching.