Summary
Although the killer doll was the talk of Hollywood when the original was released in January 2023,M3GAN 2.0is doing poorly at the box office, and its Rotten Tomatoes score is much lower than the original.
WhenM3GANarrived in theaters on January 6th, 2023,horrorfans were impressed with theBlumhousestory abouta grieving young girl, Cady (Violet McGraw), who befriends a lifelike doll when she moves in with her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams) after her parents pass away. As M3GAN’s evil nature comes to light, shedraws comparisons to the iconic villain Chucky, but her beloved dance moves set her apart.The ending sets up a sequel, and thanks to the original’s success, a second movie was quickly greenlit. McGraw and Williams are back, along with Amie Donald as M3GAN and Jenna Davis as her voice.M3GAN 2.0opened on June 27th, 2025,and despite the love that people have for the villain, the sequel isn’t performing well.
M3GAN 2.0’s Box Office Performance And Rotten Tomatoes Ratings Are Low, And Fans Debate The Blumhouse Sequel’s Quality
As reported byDeadline,M3GANgrossed $180 million at the worldwide box office against a $12 million budget. Unfortunately,M3GAN 2.0’s opening weekend was a disappointment. While the first movie grossed $30.4 million in North America, the sequel only made $10.2 million in the United States and Canada, and only $17 million worldwide.
The difference betweenthe highly anticipated horror sequel’sRotten Tomatoes rating and the original’s score is just as stark.While the first movie has a 93% rating on the Tomatometer, the sequel only has 57%. However,M3GANhas only 78% on the Popcornmeter, andM3GAN 2.0has a higher audience score of 83%, which brings upa big debate that horror fans are having: is the sequel entertaining or lackluster?
Redditor @DeoGamewrote:
“Honestly, as someone who enjoyed the first a good bit, this was a mess… the plot and stakes are far too grandiose.”
Redditor @Awesomejuggler20 disagreed:
“Had so much fun with it. I loved Amelia as the villain and loved how M3GAN became a hero in this one.”
While some fans praisedthe sequel’s sense of humorand liked that M3GAN is now fighting Artificial Intelligence, others aren’t sold on it. Redditor @Cerblu wrote, “the first half of the movie was just exposition.”
M3GAN 2.0added new characters likean android named AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno) and Gemma’s coworker Tess (Jen Van Epps), and many believe that the fresh characters and premise make ita more interesting movie than the first. Some horror fans believe thatthe film’s wild tone and frantic energy should inspire other sequelsto embrace fun and intense storylines. Others like that it doesn’t tell the exact same story as the original, as that would be boring. But even though many audience members are enjoying it, it’s unlikely thatM3GAN 2.0will end its theatrical run and match the original’s performance.
Many are curious ifM3GAN 2.0’s disappointing box office numbers mean that a third movie won’t happen. Since M3GAN is such a memorable character, it’s possible to imagine an entire franchise. In a recent interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, Williams shared that she would be glad to make another. She said:
“I certainly don’t feel like I’m done making these movies with these people and this tonal landscape and the subject matter. So, yeah, I have been dreaming of a third, for sure.”
Blumhouse has some big horror releases slated for the rest of 2025, and both of them are sequels. Ethan Hawke reprises his terrifying and creepy role of The Grabber inThe Black Phone 2, which will be released on October 17th, andFive Nights at Freddy’s 2will be in theaters on December 5th.
