Jason Blum, the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, is reclaiming the narrative around “M3GAN 2.0,” opting to get candid about why he thinks the sequel — which was previously tracking to open around $45 million — faltered at the box office opening weekend with just $10 million.
While appearing on The Town, Blum explained that the underperformance of “M3GAN 2.0” came down to three basic factors: changing too much from the original, betting on a summer premiere when the first movie premiered in the fall and fast-tracking the movie.
“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,” Blum said. “We kind of classically overthought how powerful people’s engagement was really with her.”
He also pushed the blame on his studio and their timeline rather than the movie’s writer/director, Gerard Johnstone. “Gerard is someone who can solve almost anything you throw at him, but he needs time. He’s just one of those directors that needs a lot of time,” the exec explained.
At the end of the day, “M3GAN 2.0” flopping isn’t entirely a shocking Hollywood story. Sequels to beloved movies flop all the time. What is notable is Blum’s decision to openly talk about Blumhouse’s slump while he’s in the middle of it.
“Everyone says, ‘Oh, I learned so much from failure.’ But when they are actually in a situation where things are not going well they sweep it under the rug,” Blum said, adding that his appearance on the podcast came “right in the middle of the pain.”
Blum also noted that because Blumhouse is not a public company, he has the luxury of talking openly about these difficult times without worrying about potential pushback on an earnings call. The studio head is also confident that this down period is just temporary.
“You can’t erase 15 years of what we’ve done, of the filmmakers that we’ve worked with, for a little slump,” he argued.
Blum’s episode has been well-regarded by industry insiders. The Blacklist founder Franklin Leonard called the interview a “masterclass in leadership,” while fellow filmmaker Joe Russo also called it a “masterclass.”
