‘F1’ Laps 'M3GAN 2.0' At Friday Box Office
Brad Pitt's sports drama speed-races to a $25 million opening day, while Blumhouse's follow-up to their buzzy 2023 flick might not crack $10 million for the weekend.
It’s a very strange late-June weekend, one that on the surface appears to have a ‘star-focused, original triumphs over IP-specific sequel’ narrative. However, beyond the whole “I’d prefer both big newbies perform as well as possible” variable, we’re still seeing a less-than-ideal circumstance in which a film centered on an AARP-eligible lead and produced by a tech giant, one that may well still make good on threats to make this breakout smash its last conventional theatrical release, is just decimating a seemingly sure-fire follow-up to a recent youth-skewing breakout original. This is not to say I was rooting for F1 to tank (whatever my issues with Top Gun: Maverick and Tron: Legacy, Joseph Kosinski’s Only the Brave is a modern classic). Still, the comparative implosion of M3GAN 2.0 is frankly scarier than any Blumhouse movie this side of Sinister.
I’m old enough to remember being shocked when Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves’ The Devil’s Advocate (a spectacular 2.5-hour, big-budget horror-skewing dramedy) got pantsed in its debut weekend by the cheaper, youth-skewing I Know What You Did Last Summer. I’m old enough to remember, 1.5 years later, being relieved when Mel Gibson’s Payback opened above $20 million, thus ending a mini-spree of box office domination by youth-skewing teen flicks like Varsity Blues and She’s All That. I didn’t get it then, just as I was wrong to root against Home Alone as a pre-teen simply because it was outgrossing films like Batman and Raiders of the Lost Ark at the domestic box office. Heck, fair or not, I am young enough to remember when Roger Moore risked becoming a punchline when he continued to play James Bond until he was 57.
Again, the box office is generally not a game of poker, but rather a game of blackjack, where each film competes only with itself. M3GAN 2.0 (opening ten years after Ted 2) isn’t underwhelming *because* F1 is playing about as well as hoped. In a vacuum, it makes sense that Brad Pitt’s well-reviewed and well-recieved F1 is kicking ass this weekend. Beyond the “Apple” of it all, it’s arguably another example of Warner Bros.’ marketing talent when it comes to turning less conventional programmers (from Magic Mike in 2012 through Sinners in 2025) into outright blockbusters. And, while I’m surprised at the sheer size of the “predecessor to sequel” drop, M3GAN 2.0 not becoming a breakout sequel (should have been called M3GAN$, dammit) isn’t a giant shock and more of a “Blumhouse problem” than “movie theaters problem.” Nonetheless…