Ahh, but were any of them successful BECAUSE Shia was in them? That’s the important question. I remember the same faulty logic being used by Demi Moore’s agent to get her a huge payday back in the 90’s. She got her payday. Once. The movie was such a dismal failure that we didn’t hear from her much again until she started robbing the cradle and praying to Obama. Sometimes, a high concept movie and an actor fit together, but many folks have lost a lot of money betting that just because a star chose a few high concept films in a row, that it makes him ‘bankable’.
Oh I think it’s pretty safe to agree with you that LaBeouf had nothing to do with those movies box office success. He didn’t hurt them though either. He’s kind of like Orlando Bloom in that sense, just a safe but not overly expensive big budget movie star.