Live action MOTU movie continued to drop in sales

So 2 weeks into its debut, the new Masters of the Universe live action movie still plummeted in sales, as Variety reported:

“Masters of the Universe,” on the other hand, will have a harder time justifying its mega price tag. The sword-and-planet adventure dropped to No. 5 with $8.6 million from 3,677 locations. It has earned just $45.7 million in North America and $84 million worldwide and, against a nearly $200 million production budget, will leave theaters as one of the year’s biggest bombs. “Masters of the Universe” is based on the ’80s Mattel toy and cartoon, and this kind of turnout suggests the movie isn’t expanding beyond the core fanbase of older males.

Which won't include me. Why, who knows if a lot of what they perceive as a fanbase even bothered attending? Obviously, some did, but it would be silly to assume virtually all did unquestioned. This kind of popcorn fare is really no big deal, and some people who played with the toys in the 80s doubtlessly outgrew that kind of stuff long ago. If the film's story does little to prove itself worth watching no matter what age group it's supposedly aimed at, then it's not hard to guess that's another reason why even veteran toy players and cartoon watchers are uninterested.

Now, with that told, there's a certain something else I've learned about the movie from this BBC report that's decidedly troubling, and makes it additionally hard to care it's collapsed financially:

A schoolgirl said it was "great fun" to be "punched" in the stomach by Sir Idris Elba while filming for a Hollywood movie.

At 13, Delilah O'Riordan worked with Tom Hanks in Here (2024). A year later, classmates at her school in Brentwood, Essex, were shocked to see her face on the big screen yet again.

A live action remake of the 1980s cartoon, Masters of the Universe, hit UK cinemas on 5 May.

"My scene was with Idris Elba. In the scene he punched me in the stomach which was great fun. He's really lovely, and I think it was quite surreal," said O'Riordan.

"We did a few practises and he was like making jokes and things so it was really funny.

Seriously, this is sick, even if what's seen on the screen is simulated. It's not something to joke about even in cinematic terms, and that the BBC would make light of stuff like this is despicable.

And then, I also noticed this UK Guardian article written up after the box office results, where they try to make it sound like everything's hunky-dory despite the poor financial receipts:

So why then does everyone involved in this thing seem so cheerful? “Travis Knight and the entire cast and film-making team have delivered something truly special,” Amazon MGM’s Kevin Wilson gushed to Variety. “This opening is exactly the kind of critical first moment that validates our holistic distribution strategy – building awareness and engagement that will carry well beyond the theatrical window.”

Meanwhile, Knight has been talking up the possibility of sequels, after the movie appeared to introduce He-Man’s twin She-Ra in a mid-credits scene. “With every movie that I’ve ever made, I’ve always imagined where the characters go outside … the bounds of the movie,” Knight told TechRadar. “You want to tell a self-contained story, and I think we’ve done that with this movie, but there are things within the wider mythology that didn’t fit within that, and the She-Ra character was one of them.”

“Adora is also a character that carries a lot of weight with her,” he added. “A lot of people, myself included, love that character, so we wanted to give a little nod to where that could go if we were given the opportunity to tell more stories.” [...]

If weak box office no longer kills commercial movies, that may not be the worst thing ever – because Masters of the Universe actually has a bit too much going for it to be a complete dud. The existence of She-Ra really does give the project franchise potential and Knight’s film is enjoyable enough in a nostalgic sort of way. Is the idea that a modern blockbuster can survive on streaming, toys and audience goodwill alone really so terrible?

But even if all this is true, none of it magically turns a $54m opening against a $200m-plus budget into Top Gun: Maverick. A franchise still needs new fans, not just parents revisiting Eternia, and there’s little evidence just yet that Masters of the Universe has actually managed to find them.

So because they might want to spotlight She-Ra in a sequel, that justifies continuing on, despite the failure? Nope, sorry. If they have any intention of making such a sequel woke, that's why it's better, as noted before, if it all came to a halt. Mainly because all these movies based on toy merchandise have long gotten silly, and they really don't add up to escapist entertainment any more than art. I guess it's because the special effects have also long gotten tiresome, as I may have argued before, and that's why when I watch live action, I prefer dramas based on acting talent, or anything of the sort where special effects are kept to a minimum, and animation, again, makes an alternative for sci-fi with better potential. But again, Hollywood won't consider animation, and that's only bringing down variety and competition a lot more.