M3GAN 2.0 Bombs At The Box Office Against Brad Pitt's F1
Universal and Blumhouse gambled by turning their creepy doll into a synthetic ethics professor, and the box office responded accordingly.
Brad Pitt's F1 may not have matched the high-speed success of Top Gun: Maverick, but it still smoked the competition this weekend — especially Universal's M3GAN 2.0, which crashed hard right out of the gate.
Pitt's Formula 1 drama, directed by Joseph Kosinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, opened at $55.6 million domestically, easily claiming the No. 1 spot. Meanwhile, M3GAN 2.0 limped into fourth place with just $10.2 million, a steep drop from the original's strong debut.
Weekend Box Office Highlights:
- F1 – $55.6 million
- How to Train Your Dragon (Remake) – $19.4 million
- Elio – $10.7 million
- M3GAN 2.0 – $10.2 million
- 28 Years Later – $9.7 million
So what happened to M3GAN 2.0? In short: they pulled a Terminator 2, ditching horror for action. The killer doll sequel traded jump scares for AI lectures, and audiences weren't buying it. The ending in particular — described by some viewers as full-blown "AI propaganda" — didn't help.
Even with Jenna Davis and Amie Donald returning as M3GAN and Violet McGraw back as Cady, the film swaps genuine tension for clunky moralizing. The new villain, AMELIA (played by Ivanna Sakhno), is a sentient super-assistant gone rogue, and by the final act, the movie seems more interested in warning about tech ethics than delivering thrills.
M3GAN vs. M3GAN 2.0 – By the Numbers:
Original (2023):
- Opening Weekend: $30.4 million
- CinemaScore: B
- Popcornmeter: 78%
Sequel (2025):
- Opening Weekend: $10.2 million
- CinemaScore: B+
- Popcornmeter: 84%
Critics and fans actually rated M3GAN 2.0 slightly higher than the original, but enthusiasm didn't translate to ticket sales. The studio's pivot toward a sci-fi action hybrid — with less horror and more exposition — appears to have backfired. Even Elio, which has been a disappointment for Pixar, outperformed it.
Meanwhile, F1 isn't exactly Maverick 2.0, but it came with decent marks:
- CinemaScore: A
- Rotten Tomatoes: 83% (Certified Fresh)
- Popcornmeter: 97% (Verified Hot)
It's a solid showing, especially for a movie that isn't part of a massive franchise. But even if F1 isn't a blockbuster juggernaut, it still left M3GAN 2.0 spinning its wheels.