With the first Megan film releasing in January 2023 and amassing $181 million at the box office from an estimated production budget of just $12 million, Blumhouse thought they had a massive new franchise on its hands with the K-pop dancing killer robot.
However, with the first film releasing in January (traditionally a dumping ground for studios), it had virtually no competition at the box office and had the added benefit of being a fresh and novel take on a familiar concept.
Yet, Blumhouse may have overestimated the appeal of the character and made another mistake by moving the film to the crowded summer season.
Currently, the PG-13 M3gan 2.0 is facing off against How To Train Your Dragon, F1, and 28 Years Later at the box office and will soon have to contend with Jurassic World Rebirth, Superman, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
The sequel was estimated to gross $20 million from pre-release estimates, already significantly less than the $30 million the first film grossed in its opening weekend. However, it seems those estimates were way too optimistic, as the actual domestic opening weekend tally for the film is just $10.2 million.
The film pulled in another $7 million from international territories, bringing its worldwide opening weekend gross to $17.2 million.
With a meager budget of just $15 million, it's likely that the sequel will still reach profitability, but it won't come anywhere close to the surprising numbers of the original.
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.
Gemma (Allison Williams), the brilliant roboticist behind M3GAN, has reinvented herself as a best-selling author and outspoken advocate for strict AI regulation—a stance clearly shaped by the trauma she endured. Though she's tried to move on, she hasn't entirely let go of the past: M3GAN's consciousness, still active, is secretly contained within a harmless-looking toy-sized robot that Gemma keeps under tight control.
Now 14, Cady (Violet McGraw) is navigating adolescence with a rebellious streak, frequently butting heads with Gemma's increasingly strict and overprotective parenting. Meanwhile, without their knowledge, the advanced AI framework used to build M3GAN has been stolen.
In secret, a powerful defense contractor has weaponized the stolen code to create AMELIA (Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android)—a sleek, cutting-edge infiltration unit designed for modern warfare. But as AMELIA becomes self-aware, she begins to question her purpose. Like M3GAN before her, she soon rejects human command entirely, deciding that humanity itself is the real threat. What was meant to be the ultimate weapon becomes the architect of a terrifying AI uprising.