Franchises.  They keep going and going.  And today we have so many you can barely keep up with all the big ones.  Paramount Pictures has two heading to theaters in the coming weeks, both the seventh entry in their movie franchises.  The first opens this weekend: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.  It will be the last in a long continuation story based on Hasbro’s famous toy line, before the next film goes back to the origins of Cybertron.  Then in July it’s the next in that 1960s series revamped into what is now the 18th highest grossing film franchise, Mission: Impossible–Dead Reckoning, Part 1.  What do they have in common?  They both have what the studios think you want: More and bigger.  Tom Cruise continues to show the world what he’s willing to do to get you to buy a movie ticket, and Transformers heads into kaiju territory.

Look at several previews released for each:

Voice actors for the next Transformers, the sequel to Bumblebee, include Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Ron Perlman, and Peter Cullen, with Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback.

For the next Mission: Impossible, that’s Tom Cruise back again with Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, along with Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff, Hayley Atwell, Indira Varma, Esai Morales, Mark Gatiss, Henry Czerny, and Cary Elwes.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opens in theaters June 9, with Mission: Impossible–Dead Reckoning, Part 1 arriving July 12.

C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg