When M3GAN debuted to $30 million back in January 2023, it seemed like a new horror icon had been born. The killer doll’s debut movie went on to scare up $180 million worldwide on a reported production budget of just $12 million, seemingly cementing M3GAN’s status as a modern fan favorite who could go on to lead not just her own franchise, but her own universe.
Blumhouse and Universal went all-in on M3GAN in the wake of that first movie’s box office success, announcing not only a bigger budget sequel but also a spinoff titled SOULM8TE. That film, described as Fatal Attraction with a sex bot, is set for release in theaters on January 9, 2026, but Blumhouse may be rethinking the future of the M3GANVERSE this week.
Because M3GAN 2.0, well, it just crashed and burned at the box office in its opening weekend.
Made on a reported production budget of somewhere in the ballpark of $25 million, with a massive marketing spend on top of that, returning director Gerard Johnstone’s sequel takes a Terminator 2 approach to the previous movie, ramping up the budget and the action spectacle for a follow-up that turns the killer doll of the first movie into something of an action hero.
In M3GAN 2.0, the lovable doll from the first movie is brought back online to fight a greater threat: Amelia, a military-grade weapon made from the underlying tech for M3GAN.
Blumhouse was hoping that M3GAN 2.0 would be their own version of a Summer Blockbuster, with the film paving the way for SOULM8TE and potentially more spinoff movies down the line. But the genre-swapped M3GAN 2.0 didn’t perform as expected in its first weekend, debuting at the #4 spot on the domestic box office charts with just $10.2 million in over 3,000 theaters.
Yes, M3GAN 2.0 debuted in theaters with just about 1/3 of the opening weekend total of the previous movie, which is never a good sign for future franchise potential. So what happened?
It’s a question I posed on Twitter over the weekend, and the most common explanation from fans is that the genre swap from horror to sci-fi/action was a big turn off with this one. Additionally, several fans cited the summer release plan as being a bad move for a movie like M3GAN 2.0, which opened itself up to being swallowed by blockbusters like F1: The Movie. Indeed, the Brad Pitt vehicle opened to $55 million and topped the charts this weekend.
As always, a combination of factors is likely to blame for M3GAN 2.0‘s surprisingly weak debut – the reviews didn’t help and many were turned off by the trailers, for starters – but there’s one primary question at the forefront of my mind today. And it’s a question that everyone at Blumhouse must also be pondering: Was it premature to consider M3GAN a modern icon?
The box office success of M3GAN back in early 2023 seems to have been largely driven by organic, viral curiosity, and the opening weekend of M3GAN 2.0 seems to suggest that audiences are largely not that interested in the doll’s continuing adventures. It takes time and often several movies for horror icons to become horror icons, of course, but a new character flopping at the box office in only their second movie isn’t a great sign for that character’s future. And if audiences aren’t showing up even for the first mainline sequel to the original, what hope do in-universe spinoffs including next year’s SOULM8TE have of turning a profit? The question behind the question there? Is the M3GAN Cinematic Universe dead on arrival?
Gerard Johnstone told The Hollywood Reporter last week, “I would not be surprised if there’s another five of these movies.” We would’ve said the same thing at the time of that interview.
This morning, however, we’re not so sure anymore.
You can read Meagan Navarro’s review of M3GAN 2.0 right here.
