"M3GAN" has finally unboxed herself – and the product launch is going better than anyone expected.
January 2023 is proving to be an unusually successful month for the box office.
That goes against the historical record of the month being something of a dumping ground
for studios, where they drop off weaker movies that audiences tend to ignore.
Case in point, Universal and Blumhouse released their sci-fi/thriller "M3GAN" in theaters
this past weekend as the year's first new major wide release – and it made an absolute killing.
The film, directed by Gerard Johnstone, ended up pulling in a stellar $30.2 million on its
opening weekend, well ahead of Friday's projections, which had it taking in $20 million on the high end.
So yeah, "M3GAN" made a ridiculous amount of money, and word of mouth seems to be scarily strong.
"They could be building emotional connections that are too hard to untangle"
Did "M3GAN" manage to top "Avatar: The Way of Water?"
No, but that hardly matters.
Everything in the movie business is relative, and this was counter-programming of the most perfect order.
Against a budget of just $12 million, the James Wan-produced, PG-13-rated horror flick
is positioned to be the start of a brand new franchise.
It currently sits at $45 million worldwide, or nearly four times its production budget,
after just one weekend in theaters.
Critics were a big help, as "M3GAN" currently holds a stellar 94% critic approval rating
on Rotten Tomatoes.
It also holds a decent 79% audience rating to go with a B CinemaScore.
Those numbers are more than good enough to keep the money coming in for several weeks,
especially since that PG-13 rating ensures that teens can go see this thing without much restriction.
"What are you?"
"I'm M3GAN!"
How huge was "M3GAN's" opening weekend?
It helps to put it all in context.
For one, the movie had a bigger opening weekend than several huge horror hits in 2022, including
"Scream," which brought in $30 million; "The Black Phone" at $23 million; and "Smile" – $22 million.
You have to look at Jordan Peele's "NOPE", which brought in $44 million to find a bigger
opening for an original film last year, and that movie came with a $68 million budget.
In the end, it all comes down to profitability.
Universal is no doubt very happy to have Peele under its roof and is probably going to be
happy with "NOPE" in the long term.
That having been said, that budget almost certainly prevented it from being profitable
in its theatrical run.
"M3GAN," on the other hand, is probably in the green already, or very close to it, even
with the cost of marketing factored in.
To make the numbers seem all the more remarkable?
As Variety points out, "M3GAN" is the first movie to have an opening weekend north of
$30 million in the first week of the new year since 2012, when "The Devil Inside" opened
to $33.7 million.
The difference, in that case, is the movie in question had abysmal reviews and fell off
a cliff in the weeks that followed.
It was a one-and-done that almost tricked audiences into buying a ticket.
The tale of an artificially intelligent, lifelike, caregiving doll that goes haywire, resulting
in a killing spree, on the other hand, is proving to be a crowd-pleaser.
That's far better for the movie's long-term prospects as a moneymaker.
Speaking of long term prospects, Universal and Blumhouse are now at the beginning stages
of building a brand new franchise with "M3GAN."
As is so often the case with horror, success pretty much automatically means that a sequel
is going to happen.
Fortunately, James Wan and Blumhouse head Jason Blum seemed to have confidence going
into this one.
As such, they were already thinking about a follow-up before the first movie even hit theaters.
Wan, speaking to /Film before the release, spoke about the potential for a sequel.
While the focus was certainly on the story at hand, they were very conscious of building
out the world, and knowing where the story could go in the future.
The filmmaker said,
So if we're fortunate enough to have sequels, then we have an idea of where we want to go."
Fortunately, it seems like Wan and Johnstone will get the chance to explore the world further.
As Deadline reported following the movie's stellar opening weekend, a "M3GAN" sequel
is already in the early stages of development.
And the door was certainly left wide open for a continuation.
It's easy to imagine that Universal will make this a top priority moving forward.
In the meantime, "M3GAN" is in theaters now – and it doesn't look like she's leaving
anytime soon.
"We have to shut her down!"
"Jesus Christ, I thought we were friends."