Jason Blum has unpacked the reasons behind M3GAN 2.0 flopping at the box office, after it was brutally panned by critics.
The horror sequel focused on the murderous doll (Amie Donald) returning to face off against military bot Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno) after the newcomer becomes self-aware and targeting her creators.
Allison Williams reprised her role as Gemma, Megan’s creator, with Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis, Brian Jordan Alvarez and also returning Jen Van Epps.
However, while the original became a runaway success and made $181million at the global box office, lightning didn’t strike twice as the follow-up earned $31m and a 58% Rotten Tomatoes score.
City AM’s Victoria Luxford branded it ‘one of the bigger disappointments of the year’, while the Cinesnob Podcast fumed that bosses ‘made a colossal mistake replacing the action-movie gibberish’.
Blumhouse producer Jason had his say on the response in a new interview, revealing film bosses were convinced the robot doll was ‘like Superman’.
During an appearance on the Town podcast, host Matt Belloni got right to the point, asking him: ‘Why didn’t this movie work?’
‘We all thought Megan was like Superman,’ he began. ‘We could do anything to her. We could change genres, we could put her in the summer, we could make her look different. We could turn her from a bad guy into a good guy.
‘We classically over-thought how powerful people’s engagement was, really, with her.’
Sharing a ‘three-part’ explanation on the flop, he continued: ‘The first part is we decided to genre swap – audience was not ready to genre swap … People wanted more Megan just like she is.
‘Every time you do a sequel, you have to ride this very fine line – if you make it too close to the first movie, everyone says, “You ripped off the first movie, why’d you make this movie? What a waste of time.”
‘And if you make it too far away from the first movie, everyone says, “Why the f**k is this a sequel? This has nothing to do with the first movie and we’re p***ed about it”.
‘The second thing is [that] we thought she could live in the summer. We thought, “We’re going from a little movie to a tentpole!”’
For the third reason, Jason pointed to a common criticism that they had faced from fans who questioned why the sequel was more action-heavy, compared to the scary first movie.
‘The third thing is, when you genre switch, your execution has to be A+,’ he insisted. ‘Gerard [Johnstone] is a terrific director – Gerard is someone who could solve almost everything you throw at him, but needs time.
‘On the first M3GAN, he had all the time in the world. I don’t think we even had a release date until the movie got finished. On this, again, we got over our skis too far. Summer movie, change the genre, set the date.
‘We got too excited by Megan and she didn’t work, so that’s what happened. That’s the story of M3GAN.’
After the MEGAN 2.0 trailer first dropped, many voiced their concerns that the horror elements that made the first movie so iconic had been stripped out and replaced with action scenes.
Touching on the fears in an interview with Metro, director Gerard promised that the ‘horror DNA’ was still as present.
‘For me, it’s an extension of the character,’ he told us. ‘We’re conscious of the fact that she’s this murder-bot, but if we’re going to have a redemption story for her, then why not move into more of the action realm, and espionage?
‘I just thought, if a technology like Megan existed, this is the most obvious way to use it. Instead of drones, you can send in something that looks like a human and it’s a much more targeted way of carrying out strikes.
‘As soon as I looked at it from a logical point of view, it just made sense that the genre would have to change.’
‘Having said that there are a lot of sequences in the movie that are anchored in a horror DNA,’ he insisted. ‘Especially Megan’s lair, for example. But it’s a different kind of horror. It’s more mood and atmosphere, and it’s undoubtedly more fun.
‘We’ve taken the villain from the first movie and put her center stage. By virtue of doing that, it’s not going to be quite as creepy as the first movie, but it’s a different experience, and one that I still think is a hell of a lot of fun.’
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
