Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum was a recent guest on The Town podcast, where he addressed the fact that the horror-focused, independent film studio might be in a little bit of a slump, especially in the wake of M3gan 2.0's monumental misfire in its opening weekend at the box office.
Released on June 27, the sequel has currently amassed $21.56M million at the box office as of July 3- one week in theaters. In comparison, the first film opened to $45 milion in just its first weekend.
"I thought, you know what? If Blumhouse is in a slump, I’d like to tell that story. I don’t want other people to tell that story, number one," said Blum on his decision to appear on the podcast and not mince words.
Wolfman, Drop, and The Woman in the Yard all fell short of expectations at the box office but it was the recent tepid reception to M3gan 2.0, a film that was thought to be a surefire hit given the titular character's popularity and the film's low budget, that may have the studio reassessing how they greenlight projects.
"We all thought M3gan was like Superman—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,” he stated on the Matthew Belloni-hosted podcast.
“And we kind of classically overthought how powerful people’s engagement was, really, with her."
Blum went on to praise the director but noted that Johnstone had way more time to finish and polish the first film, while the sequel was given a release date before they even started rolling cameras.
M3GAN 2.0 stars Allison Williams as Gemma, Violet McGraw as Cady, Jenna Davis as the voice of M3GAN, Brian Jordan Alvarez as Cole, and Ivanna Sakhno as AMELIA.
Gerard Johnstone returns to the director's chair for the sequel, having also penned the screenplay.