M3GAN 2.0 producer Jason Blum addresses box office flop

Jason Blum admitted that the M3GAN team were mistaken when they thought audiences would show up for the character no matter what.
Producer Jason Blum has addressed his latest movie M3GAN 2.0’s box office failure, admitting that they changed too much from the original as they thought the character “was like Superman”.
The original M3GAN, a horror about an android who develops self-awareness and becomes lethal, was a huge hit at the box office, grossing more than $180 million (£132 million) from a $12 million (£9 million) budget.
The follow-up, which switched genres from horror to action comedy, opened to disappointing numbers over the weekend, only taking $17 million (£12 million) worldwide.
During an appearance on The Town podcast, Blum admitted that the M3GAN team were mistaken when they thought audiences would show up for the character no matter what.
“We all thought M3GAN was like Superman,” he shared. “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. And we classically overthought how powerful people’s engagement was, really, with her.”
The famed horror producer noted that the summer release date and genre swap were the biggest contributing factors.
“We thought she could live in the summer, right? We thought, ‘We’re going from a little movie to a tentpole!'” he said.
The filmmaker also acknowledged that director Gerard Johnstone had “all the time in the world” to make the first M3GAN whereas he had to hit a certain release date for the sequel.
“On this, again, we’ve gone over our skis too far, summer movie, change the genre, set the date. We got too excited by M3GAN, and she didn’t work,” he candidly shared.
Addressing his personal feelings, Blum revealed that he’d “been in pain all weekend long” and went on “a death spiral of depression” over the film’s commercial performance.
M3GAN 2.0, starring Allison Williams, opened during a busy month of blockbusters, including F1, Jurassic World Rebirth and Superman.
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