M3GAN 2.0 has disappointed fans and fizzled out at the box office. While the original feature created a social media frenzy unlike any other and made it one of the profitable horror flicks of the year, the sequel heavily underperformed in equal measure. The movie is produced by horror specialists Jason Blum and James Wan, both of whom were behind M3GAN, as was director Gerard Johnstone. In a new interview, Blum reflected on what went wrong with M3GAN 2.0.

“We all thought M3GAN was like Superman. We could do anything to her,” Blum said on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast. The sequel introduces the idea of a military-grade weapon known as Amelia, which is designed to be the ultimate infiltration spy. However, as Amelia, like its predecessor, goes rogue and Gemma decides to resurrect M3GAN, making it faster, stronger, and more lethal. Probably the concept did not sit well with fans, “We could change genres. We could put her in the summer. We could make her look different. We could turn her from a bad guy into a good guy. And we classically over-thought how powerful people’s engagement really was with her.”

But historically, sequels are trickiest, given many iconic films have given out subpar follow-ups like Speed 2: Cruise Control, Jaws: The Revenge, Independence Day: Resurgence. Blum reveals M3GAN 2.0 had a similar weight of high expectations: “People wanted more M3GAN just like she is. Every time you do a sequel, you have to ride this very fine line,” he said.

“Which is, if you make it too close to the first movie, everyone says, ‘You ripped off the first movie.’ And, ‘Why’d you make this movie? What a waste of time.’ And if you make it too far away from the first movie, everyone says, ‘Why the f*** is this a sequel? This has nothing to do with the first movie and we’re pissed about it.’”

M3GAN 2.0 is Box Office Bum

M3GAN 2.0 earned approximately $20 million at the box office, in contrast, the original movie earned $181.8 million. The sequel has a 58 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating, while interestingly audience score sits as high as 82 percent. It stars Allison Williams as Gemma, Violet McGraw as Cady, and Ivanna Sakhno as Amelia. Furthermore, Jemaine Clement stars as Alton, while Amie Donald physically portrays M3GAN, Jenna Davis voices the character.

via Collider