Masters of the Universe has opened as analysts expected, with underwhelming box office. But the doom-mongers might be missing something…
Despite a strong marketing campaign and positive early buzz, Masters of the Universe has performed as pessimistically suggested by box office analysts, if not slightly less than those low estimates. The film was greeted with mixed reviews, leaning a little more on the positive side. The overall response from the public has been largely positive. Unfortunately, the opening weekend didn’t deliver a positive surprise.
In terms of its mediocre box office performance, should it be too much of a surprise? Ever since the first iteration of He-Man and his chums in toy form, and the original cartoon, every new version since, whether it was the Lundgren movie, The New Adventures of He-Man (in 1989), and numerous animated reboots, has underwhelmed both in terms of viewing numbers and cultivating new fans. The truth is, perhaps Masters of the Universe had its time between 1981 and 1984, before the popularity of the cartoons and toy line started to dwindle.
Still, we’re in an age of nostalgia-driven reboots. Not everything needs to be a cultural behemoth or do way beyond expected. Travis Knight’s film won’t end He-Man as a cave to be mined, in the same way that disappointing box office for Bumblebee didn’t mark the final nail in the coffin for Transformers content. Whether it gets put in the vault for a few years, or the focus switches back to animation or series, remains to be seen. There is rumoured to be a new animated series due out, Masters of the Universe: Tales from Eternia from Snipple Animation Studios, premiering on YouTube this month. He-Man remains well known in pop cultural terms, even if kids are more familiar with Skeletor memes than anything else.
Media outlets, as they tend to, have revelled in the latest studio blockbuster bomb. A disaster that will no doubt end any hopes of the film delivering on the continuation(s) it teases. Or will it? If we were talking in older, more rudimentary terms where a film’s success was based on theatrical box office numbers, then absolutely, the likelihood of Knight getting to move into production on a sequel would seem nigh on impossible. However, even in the halcyon days of VHS, DVD and the era when theatrical runs were still the predominant benchmark of success for a studio picture, a good home release run could breathe life into a movie.
I get it; reports always lean on sensationalism. It gathers clicks more than reality does. Binary thinking is easier to sell too. Publication after publication was running box office dud clickbait before the film had even come out. By the arrival of weekend estimates, even more had followed, whilst some had simply reemphasised what a disaster this has been. There’s a lot more to this though. The life and death of He-Man goes way beyond its opening weekend returns. Amazon, with the most blindly optimistic will in the world, would not have spent the best part of 200 million dollars, plus the massive figures on top which they’ve undoubtedly spent on the impressive marketing campaign, to base their success purely on the theatrical run. They’ve bet on He-Man as an intellectual property for the long game.
Studios are savvier than you might expect. Amazon is the largest streaming platform that’s spent just as much on content that bypassed theatrical releases entirely. All the big boys are investing heavily in their originals and their own tentpole films. Would Amazon prefer Masters of the Universe to break even or make a tidy profit before the end of the theatrical run? Undoubtedly, but they’ll have already internally set their expectations for how much the theatrical run should bring back. The official response to their opening weekend was along the lines of being pleased with the numbers (in contrast to the negativity most trades are suggesting). In previous years, that might have seemed like a real stretching of truth and credibility in an attempt to put positive spin on a disaster. A bit like saying the Titanic’s maiden voyage was going swimmingly, until the iceberg. We’re in 2026 though, and multiple streams of revenue and a long game in terms of cultivating returns is the order of the day.
With Masters of the Universe, merch has been produced and released, the movie is now swinging the Sword of Power across the world, and Amazon was even happy enough to bypass a theatrical release in a significant territory like France. I can already see the news pieces that will drop alongside the film’s premiere on Prime should it attract massive viewing figures. Something along the lines of “He-Man has the Power on streaming.” I should probably copyright that. There’s also something to be said for dropping a loss-leader theatrical run.
Mercy (also from Amazon), the much-maligned Chris Pratt box office “disaster,” fired straight to number 1 on its streaming release, quickly clawing back revenue lost on that theatrical run. Some factors made it a streaming success. For one, it’s got two name actors in Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson. Of course, its success on streaming was accompanied by a swathe of redemptive op-eds across hundreds of sites. Secondly, there’s a certain prestige that comes with being a big theatrical release, even if audiences couldn’t be arsed to see it on the big screen. The big cinema releases Prime originals often tend to allure more clicks than a standard straight-to-subscription film.
Expect the same for Masters of the Universe. The reality is, with an opening global box office weekend of around $54 million, it’s pulling numbers anyone with any semblance of reality would have expected. Who was the primary audience for this? Probably me. My generation. The ones who grew up on the cartoons and Lundgren’s majestic undercrackers. I had a shit tonne of toys, and it was never in doubt, despite the trailers looking a bit lacklustre, that even morbid curiosity was going to lure me there. In an ideal world, the film would also have lured some younger viewers, but beyond middle-aged men dragging their kids, numbers on that front would be limited. Prime knew this and planned accordingly. They even made Lundgren himself a really major presence in the publicity of the film. Prime caters more to the young adult and older crowd. Disney, by contrast, has a far more all-encompassing net, with a huge load of their legacy and current content aimed at kids. In fact, this new Masters film has probably grossed more than many realists might have really expected in theatres.
Still, the largely positive response, its pedigree as a tentpole big-screen film (regardless of performance), and the recognisable IP mean that by the time it drops on streaming with a front-and-center placement, it’ll have people ready, waiting, and willing to watch it. Those somewhat indifferent fans who decided to go and watch Scary Movie instead, or who were more interested in the indie successes on the market, or simply those who now rarely want the expense of going to the cinema, will be waiting for the Amazon Prime premiere. That will probably be here before the summer is out, and hey, maybe even a few more younger viewers might take a peek too.
Do I think we’ll see He-Man in the shape of Nicholas Galitzine return for a sequel? Despite my counterargument against the box office bomb news blitz, the realities of modern studio distribution (particularly from an entity like Amazon) mean it is up in the air. The chances almost rest as much on whether executives merely get an itch to move on to something else entirely. Now, if the film does well below expected on Prime, it’s a totally different matter and they’ll can it without blinking. However, I would not be at all surprised if the film does streaming gangbusters (whatever that means these days and on what metrics) and a sequel gets put into production.
It might be done on a smaller budget; it might even be made as a streaming premiere and be billed as the primo prime content of its particular window. Or it might go the Knives Out route and have sequels premiere very shortly after a smaller theatrical window. They’ve given it marquee value by releasing it as an early June tentpole. The prestige (such as it is) is now attached to the first film and may well not be entirely necessary for a subsequent sequel.
Here’s an even bigger question. Do I want a sequel? Whilst my view on Knight’s movie was very mixed, for the most part I had a good time. The cast were likeable on and also off camera. Galitzine was endearing as both He-Man and during the press circuit, so I’m rooting for his return. Likewise, Camila Mendes and the always likeable Alison Brie. Jared Leto’s popularity dive probably didn’t help matters, but whilst he’s usually cinematic cyanide, he was both impressive as Skeletor and impressively unrecognisable (and I suspect plenty was done in post to ensure that). By all means keep clicking those articles about this unmitigated disaster, but I am pretty sure that the producers aren’t going to be losing too much sleep on the opening weekend numbers. As for He-Man, he might still have the power.
Do you think there will be a sequel to Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe? Is it something you’d like to see? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Tom Jolliffe
