As it's come up again...
I feel this 2003 press release from Hasbro announcing a live-action film should put to bed the debate on how well Transformers was performing at the time
Note: "TFs is one of the most popular brands... with sales up 64%"
That is *why* the film was made
Because inevitably there will be ppl thinking this is just my nostalgic view on things, here is Hasbro's own press release from 2003 announcing a movie was in development
A "dead" brand with sales up 64%, a cartoon with 12 million viewers and a comic topping the sales charts