Masters of the Universe has officially bombed at the box office.
The He-Man reboot opened to an estimated $31.1 million domestically, landing at the very bottom of the initial $30 million to $40 million estimate range for a movie carrying a reported $170 million-plus budget.
Worse, the opening falls under the sub-$33 million floor that Puck News warned about last night. For Amazon MGM and Mattel, there is no spin that turns this into a win.
The Warnings Were Right
As we reported Friday night, the Thursday previews came in worse than two recent movies that already bombed, and the full weekend number confirmed where this was heading.
After a soft $4.4 million in Thursday night previews, Masters of the Universe managed $12.1 million across Friday, including those previews. From there, the movie finished with a roughly 2.5x weekend multiplier off Friday, landing at the $31.1 million result.
For a studio likely hoping word-of-mouth would bail out a soft start, the front-loaded shape is exactly the wrong sign.
The warning signs were already there. Now the opening weekend has turned those warnings into the box office story.
He-Man Opened Below Recent Flops
The comparison to recent box office disappointments now looks even worse. Masters of the Universe did not just preview softer than Mortal Kombat II and The Mandalorian & Grogu. It opened smaller than both of them, too.
Mortal Kombat II posted stronger previews at $5.2 million and opened bigger at $38.5 million, yet still collapsed to just $126.8 million worldwide.
The Mandalorian & Grogu tripled He-Man’s previews with $12 million and opened all the way up at $81.6 million, and it is still bombing at only $253 million worldwide.
He-Man launched below the opening weekends of both, and well under half of what The Mandalorian & Grogu managed out of the gate.
If movies that started that much hotter are already in trouble, He-Man’s $31.1 million opening puts Masters of the Universe in a brutal position.
The overseas picture does not help. Masters of the Universe debuted at No. 3 in the UK behind Backrooms and Obsession, and Puck flagged broader international softness heading into the weekend. A globally recognized brand is not traveling the way a $170 million bet needs it to.
The Franchise Problem Starts Now
This is where the $31.1 million opening really stings.
With a production budget reported north of $170 million before marketing, the standard rule of thumb is that Masters of the Universe needs to clear north of $400 million worldwide just to break even.
Opening at the low end of tracking, falling under Puck’s warning floor, and starting soft overseas makes that target look out of reach already.
Amazon MGM and Mattel were not just launching a movie. They were trying to relaunch He-Man as a major theatrical franchise. After this opening, any sequel plans, spinoff hopes, or larger Masters of the Universe universe are on much shakier ground than they were a week ago.
Mixed Reception Gave It No Cushion
The reviews were not strong enough to change the box office story.
Travis Knight’s reboot is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at around 66% from critics (it dropped), with an 88% audience score.
But those numbers do not mean the movie landed as a big crowd-pleaser. Reception has been more mid-to-split than outright glowing, with plenty of criticism over the tone, jokes, pacing, Earth material, and how the movie handles He-Man himself.
In my own review, we gave Masters of the Universe a 5 out of 10. The movie has moments, but the tone is uneven, the jokes constantly undercut the epic scenes, and it never fully commits to what it wants to be.
Reception like that rarely gives a big-budget movie the strong legs needed to recover from a soft start. The opening weekend suggests audiences were not interested enough to find out either way.
What Happens Now
The PG-13 family angle gives Masters of the Universe a slightly longer runway than a hard-R flop, and a Certified Fresh score is something the studio can point to.
But with Scary Movie pulling the comedy crowd, Backrooms and Obsession still in play, and a weak overseas start, the path to anything resembling break-even already looks brutally narrow.
The previews warned about this. The opening weekend confirmed it.
Masters of the Universe is a box office bomb, and the only question left is how far it falls in the weeks ahead.
For a full breakdown of what went wrong, we examined why Masters of the Universe tanked at the box office.
