UPDATE: The opening weekend numbers are in, and they confirm the bomb. Masters of the Universe opened to just $29.3 million — below estimates and under Puck’s floor. Read our full opening weekend box office breakdown here.
Masters of the Universe opened its box office run with Thursday previews, and the early numbers are worse than two recent films that already bombed.
Amazon MGM and Mattel’s $170 million He-Man reboot pulled in an estimated $4 million in Thursday night previews, according to Deadline.
Paramount and Miramax’s Scary Movie revival, opening the same weekend, nearly doubled that with a $7.5 million preview haul, landing near Scream 7 territory for a comedy.
As our Masters of the Universe box office tracking has flagged for weeks, awareness for the movie kept climbing while interest never followed. The previews are the first hard confirmation of that soft tracking.
Puck Says The Opening Could Land Under $33 Million
Industry estimates have pegged the Masters of the Universe opening anywhere from $30 million to $40 million, but the floor may be lower than that.
Puck News reports the movie is underperforming overseas and goes so far as to suggest the domestic opening could come in under $33 million.
That tracks with what’s happening abroad: Masters of the Universe debuted at #3 in the UK on Wednesday, behind both Backrooms and Obsession, despite He-Man being a recognizable brand in international markets.
For a movie carrying a reported $170 million-plus production budget before marketing, a sub-$33 million start is the kind of number that raises immediate questions about a planned franchise. The flick needs around $425 million to breakeven.
The Previews Are Worse Than Two Movies That Already Bombed
Here is the part that should worry Amazon MGM. A strong preview number does not guarantee a hit, and two recent releases prove it.
Mortal Kombat II posted $5.2 million in previews, better than Masters of the Universe, and still cratered. The sequel is stuck at just $126.8 million worldwide.
The Mandalorian & Grogu did even better up front, grossing $12 million in Thursday previews, three times what He-Man managed. It is bombing too, sitting at only $253 million worldwide as of Wednesday after a brutal second-weekend drop.
So the comparison is not just that Masters of the Universe previewed softly. It previewed below two films that came in with stronger starts and still failed to deliver.
He-Man is entering the weekend with less momentum than movies that are already considered disappointments.
The Rotten Tomatoes Score Does Not Tell The Whole Story
On paper, the reviews look decent. They are not.
Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, sitting around 71% from critics with an 88% audience score. But that number papers over a movie with real problems.
In our own Masters of the Universe review, we gave it a 5 out of 10, as it has moments, but the tone is uneven and it never fully commits to what it wants to be.p, and right now neither the interest nor a slam-dunk verdict is there to carry it.
He-Man Needs Legs He May Not Have
The PG-13 rating and family angle still give Masters of the Universe a lane that a film like Mortal Kombat II never had, and a positive Rotten Tomatoes score could help it hold better than its previews suggest. However, that hasn’t helped The Mandalorian & Grogu.
With Scary Movie dominating the comedy crowd, Backrooms and Obsession eating into the genre audience, and overseas numbers coming in soft, He-Man does not have an obvious path to the kind of multiplier a $170 million movie needs.
The full opening weekend will tell the real story. For now, the previews suggest Masters of the Universe is headed for exactly the soft start the tracking warned about, and possibly worse.
