In a surprise twist, the Bots are getting squeezed by Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at the weekend box office. Transformers One was expected to open to at least $30 million to $35 million in North America.

While it is enjoying strong critical and audience reception, Paramount/Hasbro Entertainment’s “Transformers One” is off to a somewhat slow start at the box office, grossing just $10 million on opening day — including $3.4 million from previews — as it heads for an opening weekend of $26.3 million.

That figure beats out a slew of family movie previews including that of Paramount’s IF ($1.75M), The Garfield Movie ($2.3M), Trolls Band Together and even the live-action spinoff Transformers movie, Bumblebee which did $2.15M.

Returning to a wholly animated product, the robot franchise hatches an unusually smart and well-voiced prequel helmed by "Toy Story 4" Oscar winner Josh Cooley.

That’s where the characters find themselves in “Transformers One,” the animated origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron. Up to this point in the movie, the film’s leads have not been in the possession of the cogs needed to transform.