Michael Bay extends, expands first-look deal with Paramount

Michael Bay, the director and producer behind the $3.7-billion “Transformers” franchise, inked a new three-year deal with Paramount Pictures, the longtime home of his Platinum Dunes production company.

Bay’s pact with the studio has been expanded to include his Bay Films banner. The new first-look deal is effective immediately.

“We take great pride in the fact that Michael is part of the Paramount family and we look forward to growing our productive and successful partnership,” Brad Grey, Paramount chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

Bay’s “Transformers: Age of Extinction” is the top-grossing film of 2014, taking in $968 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. The fourth installment in the series earned more than $300 million in Chinese box offices, the highest grossed for any movie in the country.

But the film faced scrutiny from the investment company behind the Beijing real estate development Pangu Plaza, which appeared in the film as part of a product placement agreement. Pangu Investment Co. suspended cooperation with Paramount after alleging the filmmakers didn’t fully hold up their end of the product placement deal.

Bay’s films have grossed more than $6 billion at the global box office.

His next movie, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” will open Aug. 8.

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