The opening-night verdict is in. CinemaScore announced on June 6 that audiences graded Masters of the Universe a B, a middling mark for a four-quadrant tentpole, as Saturday trade estimates for the He-Man reboot slipped from 31 million to about 30 million dollars for the three-day weekend.
TheWrap reports the Amazon MGM release is heading for an estimated 30 million dollar opening from 3,677 locations against a production budget of at least 170 million dollars, calling the film “set to be one of if not the biggest flops of the summer.” The B CinemaScore lands below the A- earned by both The Mandalorian and Grogu and director Travis Knight’s own 2018 Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, the kind of grade that rarely signals the strong word of mouth a film needs to outrun a soft start.
The fuller scorecard is a familiar split: 66 percent with critics and 88 percent with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. By comparison, the weekend’s runaway leader, Scary Movie, took a C+ CinemaScore but is opening to a franchise-record 56 million dollars on a 30 million dollar budget, while Backrooms sits third at an estimated 25.4 million in its second weekend.
TheWrap notes the film was expected to draw nostalgic Gen X men but needs a much wider audience to recover its spend, and with Scary Movie and the rest of the top five pulling the under-30 crowd, there may be little room for word of mouth to build before Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day arrives.
Sources:
- https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/scary-movie-box-office-masters-of-the-universe/
- https://comicbookmovie.com/he_man-and-the-masters-of-the-universe/masters-of-the-universe-gets-a-disappointing-cinemascore-ahead-of-tough-opening-weekend-at-us-box-office-a228179
- https://x.com/CinemaScore/status/2063130745930133580
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