‘M3GAN’ kills at 2023 box office as only original movie in Top 10

Edward Douglas
·3 min read
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As the summer movie season motors along, we’re bound to get several more films grossing $100 million at the domestic box office. Universal and Blumhouse’s horror film “M3GAN,” released the very first weekend of 2023, may not be one of them, but as of now it is still the only original movie that isn’t a sequel or remake that holds a place in the Top 10 with the $95 million it’s made in North America.

Directed by Gerard Johnston and starring Allison Williams (“Girls,” “Get Out”), the high-concept sci-fi horror film opened with $30.4 million in 3,509 theaters on the weekend of January 6. It managed to stick around for a while, which isn’t always the case with horror. The fact that it has done so well without being a remake or sequel is quite astounding when you look at the rest of the list of 2023 blockbusters.

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Said list is still topped by Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” based on a popular series of Nintendo video games, with $571 million, followed in second place by James Gunn‘s Marvel sequel “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3” with $337.7 million. Even the most recent entry into the Top 3 with $240.8 million, Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is a sequel, while Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” is obviously a remake of the 1989 animated film, and that’s grossed $363.4 million so far. The Top 5 for the year is rounded out by Marvel’s “Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania,” which is also the only other movie released in 2023 that’s grossed $200 million domestically.

The rest of the list is also made up of sequels: “John Wick Chapter 4,” “Creed III,” “Fast X” and “Scream VI”  – lots of Roman numerals in there to try to make some of them seem fancier – and you’d have to go all the way down to the $64.4 million made in theaters by Universal’s “Cocaine Bear” to find another original movie (and that was actually based on a true story).

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It’s not exactly a new phenomenon, since studios have long known that audiences generally will go with a known commodity over something based on an original idea. We’ve seen plenty of outright bombs in terms of original movies this year, including the Adam Driver-led sci-fi thriller “65” and the recent Sebastian Maniscalco comedy “About My Father.” The number of movies that haven’t even been able to make $20 million domestically shows what a great divide there still is at the box office, despite the conditions created by the pandemic mostly being over.

Granted, “M3GAN” left theaters in March and has been available to watch on the Peacock streaming service, but it’s also very likely to get bumped out of the Top 10 by other remakes and sequels still to be released over the summer. In fact, Christopher Nolan‘s “Oppenheimer” is likely to be the next original movie released that should be able to get into the Top 10 with $100 million or more. In the meantime, “M3GAN” should enjoy its time in the sun as the filmmakers work hard on — what else? — its sequel.

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