What Masters Of The Universe’s Box Office Means For The Future Of The Franchise

The unfortunate reality of the situation has caught up to “Masters of the Universe.” Amazon and director Travis Knight’s live-action take on He-Man and the world of Eternia hasn’t lived up to commercial expectations — not by a long shot. The big-budget blockbuster is now officially and unmistakably a box office bomb. That doesn’t bode particularly well for the franchise’s future, at least not this current iteration.

During its second weekend, the adaptation of the Mattel toy line made just $8.6 million in theaters, dropping a whopping 70% from its debut. “Masters of the Universe” flopped at the box office on opening weekend, but there was always an outside chance that it would rebound in the weeks that followed. The opposite has now proven true, however, and the movie’s in truly rough shape. After two weekends, it’s made just $46.7 million domestically to go with $39.4 million internationally for an $86.1 million running total.

Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” may or may not be a hit at the box office in the long run, but it topped the charts with $44 million, taking a lot of wind out of the sails of “MOTU.” Likewise, the new “Scary Movie” unexpectedly took the number one spot in its first weekend, meaning that He-Man had to take a back seat (and a distant one, at that) in its first two frames. The writing’s already on the wall.

“MOTU” follows Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) as he returns to Eternia after 15 years on Earth, only to find that his home is being ruled by the wicked Skeletor (Jared Leto). As such, Adam must join forces with his old pals Teela (Camila Mendes) and Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba) while embracing his true destiny as He-Man — the most powerful man in the universe — to save the day.

“Masters of the Universe” cost between $170 and $200 million to produce, which doesn’t even account for marketing costs. Using any math we would historically use to determine a hit or bomb at the box office, this movie is a bomb. Plain and simple. The shame of it is that many critics and audiences seem to have really enjoyed what Travis Knight did with the material, but not enough to help make it a hit.

This movie spent years trapped in development hell and probably would have performed better in the pre-pandemic era when these sorts of franchise plays were doing far better in terms of ticket sales globally. Netflix reportedly spent $30 million on “Masters of the Universe” before axing it. Hence, it now seems like it may have dodged a bullet, even though this is one of those rare blockbusters that might’ve actually made more sense as a pure streaming play. As a theatrical misfire of this magnitude, though, the optics don’t look great for Amazon.

As for what went wrong? More than anything, the audience for a “MOTU” movie just wasn’t big enough to justify a budget of this size. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are far more interested in stuff like “Backrooms” and “Obsession,” whereas Millennials are aging up to the point that a film like this is more of a wait-to-stream prospect. Times have changed.

Jard Leto didn’t help this movie, either, having already proved that he’s box office poison with “Tron: Ares.” Indeed, he was absent from the film’s press tour, wasn’t touted much in its marketing, and didn’t even really amplify the movie’s release on his social media pages. The film’s biggest lead actor was, if anything, a hindrance rather than a boost.

The one slight wrinkle here is the Amazon of it all. The company, of course, is one of the biggest in the world, and even though it’s taking bigger strides to become a true force in Hollywood (with Prime Video being one of the biggest streaming services on the marketplace), it doesn’t play by the same rules as other studios. Specifically, Amazon doesn’t need movies like this to profit purely in theaters. It simply needs them to recoup their marketing budget and boost the profile of their eventual Prime Video rollout.

That’s a big reason why Amazon acquired MGM in an $8.5 billion deal in 2022. It was about building a bigger library for Prime Video and leveraging that library for potential franchises. That said, “Masters of the Universe” is, by the look of things, probably going to struggle to even cover its marketing costs. So, even by the admittedly more difficult to calculate Amazon movie math, this one still doesn’t look great on paper right now.

The again, if Amazon is truly invested in He-Man and his extended universe of characters, and if this movie does gangbusters business on VOD/streaming, then there’s a world in which it tries to make a follow-up anyway, perhaps for less money. The “Masters of the Universe” post-credits scene absolutely lays the groundwork for a sequel so, creatively speaking, there would be somewhere to go. Whether or not Amazon could do the logic gymnastics to ensure it makes sense financially is another question entirely.

At this point, I kindly doubt it, but stranger things have happened. More likely, though, this franchise will merely go away for a while when it comes to live-action projects.

“Masters of the Universe” is in theaters now.