Once again, for roughly the 50th time, we have Hollywood adapting an old, beloved, nostalgic property in the form of Masters of the Universe, spawned from the original He-Man. A movie version has already happened once with a Dolph Lundgren in 1987, but now, 40 years(!) later, it’s being attempted again. Masters of the Universe makes its way to theaters this weekend, and we’re tracking its box office results, as well as its critic and audience scores, alongside the other big film out this weekend, Scary Movie.
Over 150 critics have chimed in about Masters of the Universe already, giving it a fresh-but-not-amazing 69% Rotten Tomatoes score. Audiences are now showing up to theaters, and their take is much higher, currently at an 88% score instead.
Meanwhile, Scary Movie is out the same weekend, going for the comedy crowd and hoping that audiences are still high on horror after Obsession and Backrooms. Those scores? Dismal for critics with a 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, though that’s no surprise given rotten scores for almost all past movies in the series. Audiences, however, believe it’s better than that, giving it a 69% score.
There is some trepidation that Masters of the Universe could end up being a flop, positive scores or not. The most recent tracking for the film per Variety, is a $30 to $35 million domestic opening weekend, which is not terribly good against a reported $200 million budget. Masters of the Universes is coming out at a very inopportune time, on the back of aforementioned horror box office miracles Backrooms and Obsession, and also releasing the same weekend as the return of Scary Movie. That film could make as much as $70 million globally and seems set to win the weekend barring a ridiculously low Backrooms drop. Then there’s The Mandalorian and Grogu battered around in there, another big blockbuster suffering at the hands of lower-budget offerings. That too was an audience pleaser, but there just wasn’t enough audience overall. Masters of the Universe, however, costs more and looks to earn less.
Masters of the Universe stars the perfectly cast Nicholas Galitzine as Adam, alongside Camila Mendes as Teela, Idris Elba as Duncan and Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn. The big bad, the infamous Skeletor, is played by a permanently masked Jared Leto. The film is directed by Travis Knight, who hasn’t released a film since 2018’s Bumblebee, another childhood adaptation, but that was very good, at least.
Audiences, of course, care more about whether a movie is good than whatever its box office results are. But if they were hoping for a Masters sequel or trilogy, it’s going to have to perform well enough to escape “bomb” territory. Plus, we’re about to see Scary Movie do great in the context of its budget. It feels like the market is changing, and big blockbusters with big budgets have a harder time breaking out than ever before. Of the “old guard,” it’s mainly staples like superhero movies putting up numbers, however, there have been more and more exceptions as of late (The Marvels, Thunderbolts, Quantumania), and even something as storied as Star Wars is clearly no guarantee of success.
Unfortunately, good movies don’t always do well. By the end of the weekend, it’s possible that Masters of the Universe surprises, and if there’s enough positive word of mouth, that could carry it to better results in its following weekends. But this is a much tougher position than the film expected, and it needs to prepare for significant combat. Scary Movie, meanwhile, seems like it’s going to sail to success with lower overhead and worse reviews. Such is Hollywood, sometimes.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
