M3GAN has something else to dance about, as the killer doll movie will likely become a box office hit in its opening weekend.
The new film, from director Gerard Johnstone, is looking to make $17 million to $20 million in its first weekend. M3GAN will likely be a hit for the under-25 demographic, but that’s not to say others won’t enjoy it. Critics gave M3GAN 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, an impressive rating from over 100 critics. The audience score is slightly lower but could change as more people see it over the weekend.
The Blumhouse film made $2.75 million from Thursday previews from 2,950 North American theaters. As the film moves into the weekend, it’s expanding to 3,509 locations. It’s looking to make quite a splash against Avatar: The Way of Water, which is still likely to top the weekend. The James Cameron sequel looks to bring home $30 million to $35 million, a projected 50% decrease from last week.
Early in the year, horror is always a surefire bet; the Thursday previews for M3GAN are just under that of Scream‘s $3.5M from a year ago. That went on to make $30M opening weekend but had the MLK holiday to help pad out its numbers. M3GAN did surpass Sony’s Escape Room, which saw 2019 start with $2.3M previews.
SEE ALSO: Read our M3GAN review here
M3GAN has become quite the pop culture juggernaut. The first trailer went viral, and Blumhouse kept up the momentum with a marketing campaign similar to Smile from last year. Horror is having quite the moment in the mainstream, and this year promises to be just as good.
M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma (Get Out’s Allison Williams), M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to.
When Gemma suddenly becomes the caretaker of her orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw, The Haunting of Hill House), Gemma’s unsure and unprepared to be a parent. Under intense pressure at work, Gemma decides to pair her M3GAN prototype with Cady in an attempt to resolve both problems—a decision that will have unimaginable consequences.
M3GAN features a cast that includes Get Out‘s Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Lori Dungey, and Stephane Garneau-Monten.
M3GAN is released in the United States today and opens on January 13th in the UK.
