M3GAN Surprises with Strong Box Office Debut
By Movieguide® Staff
M3GAN earned over $30M in its debut weekend at the box office, which came as a surprise to the industry due to January’s reputation as a slow month for movies.
The PG-13 rated thriller about a robot doll named Model 3 Generative Android, or M3GAN, also earned over $14M internationally, pushing the movie’s worldwide totals to $45M.
According to Variety, the Gerard Johnstone directed flick had an estimated budget of $12M.
Despite M3GAN’s marketing as a horror, slasher, science fiction movie, Movieguide®’s review posits that its PG-13 rating and strong worldview elements helped it to exceed expectations.
While M3GAN has some positive elements, discernment should be used before seeing the movie in theaters due to foul language and violence.
A portion of Movieguide®’s review of M3GAN reads:
M3GAN is a science fiction thriller about a brilliant female robotics engineer who gives an advanced robot doll to her orphaned niece. For most of her life, Gemma has been focused on her career, working on robot toys for a toy manufacturer. So, she has trouble relating to her niece, Cady, whose parents were killed in a car wreck during a family ski trip. Gemma and Cady’s relationship changes for the better when Gemma finishes a life-sized robot doll called Megan for Cady. Things go wrong when the doll starts to have a dangerous mind of its own.
M3GAN sometimes has its tongue firmly planted in its check. For example, M3gan the robot doll sings two sappy songs to comfort Cady at a couple points. However, the movie delivers a fun and exciting, but scary and sometimes violent, ride. Also, the movie provides an uplifting, center-right message about putting family and children first, before one’s career. Thus, M3GAN has an anti-feminist message that leans toward conservative, traditional values. That said, the movie has strong, gratuitous foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.
Unfortunately, the MMPA rating of a movie is not always a surefire indicator of the movie’s content.
David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research notes that “Horror movies are showing no slowdown at the box office. Young moviegoers want to see them with their friends, on the big screen, for the maximum thrill.”
However, in 2022 many horror movies failed to attract large audiences due to their excessive immorality.
One example is 2022’s THE INVITATION. Although it also had a PG-13 rating, it contained more excessive sexual content.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Movie theaters have hit the usual summer slump, largely due to the subpar fare that is being shown in theaters right now.
One of the worst offenders is THE INVITATION, which made just $7 million in its opening weekend.
It’s no surprise the vampire romance is doing so poorly. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a 29% critical rating and a 53% audience score.
THE INVITATION is rated PG-13, but contains the immoral content that Movieguide® has proven means bad news at the box office.
A portion of Movieguide®’s review of THE INVITATION reads:
In Sony’s THE INVITATION, Evie, a young woman with no known living relatives takes a DNA test, discovers she has family in England and agrees to visit them. Her cousin, Oliver Alexander, invites her to a family wedding, and won’t take “no” for an answer! Evie reluctantly agrees, and the trip to the English countryside starts out stunningly beautiful, beyond her imaginings of a dream vacation. However, Evie finds out the Alexander family isn’t what it seems and ends up fighting to avoid a fate worse than death.
The cinematography of this gothic horror is excellent. However, its inability to decide what it is leads to a story that devolves into a lackluster feminist vampire fest. The overall worldview of THE INVITATION seems to be that of feminist humanism. Its story is based on Bram Stoker’s novel, DRACULA, but without the overt Christian, biblical themes. The heroine saves herself and does so using the dark powers of the Enemy. Also, strong sexual content and much gory mayhem mar this already disappointing film. So, MOVEGUIDE® rates THE INVITATION as excessive and unacceptable.
M3GAN, meanwhile, did have some redemptive content, which allowed it to rise above other movies in its same genre.
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