The first M3GAN movie was such an unexpected hit, and the little killer robot doll became such a hit online—especially with the gay community. With the sequel embracing the gay fanbase, it seemed like the movie was primed for a successful run at Pride Month, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
According to Variety, M3GAN 2.0 has promptly failed at the box office, earning only 17 million globally with a budget of 25 million. For context, the first movie managed to earn 45 million globally (eventually getting to 180 million) out of a 12 million budget.
We don’t know exactly why the sequel didn’t manage to bring back the audience from last time, but there are several factors being considered; like the fact that it has to compete with several huge blockbusters like F1 and How to Train Your Dragon.
Some also speculate that it has something to do with the shift of the marketing to focus on M3GAN being a sassy ‘good’ robot now. While I love the switch of genres that’s very much like Terminator 2, some guess that this turned off horror fans in favor of just catering to the LGBTQ+—who was probably just a minority of the audience that loved the original movie.
Who knows, maybe the sequel would find new life once it releases on streaming, but for now, it looks like the marketing campaign—while fun—didn’t manage to encourage people to actually get tickets and see it in the theater.
Such a shame because I was hoping for a trilogy.
M3GAN 2.0 is now showing in theaters.
