The four fighting heroes are to return on June 3, to be precise, after a $65 million opening weekend in US cinemas and $93m worldwide.

Reviewers might not have liked it, but plenty of cinema-goers were willing to create a considerable box office take for the Jonathan Liebesman film, leading to Paramount's announcement that a second film would be on the way.

Michael Bay, who co-produced the August release and has already seen "Transformers: Age of Extinction"
become the year's biggest worldwide hit ($1bn internationally), will return in the same capacity for the sequel, as will four of the first film's five other producers and screenwriting pair Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec.

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The next movie is to arrive one week after "X-Men: Apocalypse," one month after "Captain America 3," and one before Marvel's second 2016 release, "Doctor Strange." Scheduled for the same June 3 date is animated comedy "Sausage Party," starring Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, James Franco and Kristen Wiig.