Masters of the Universe is now playing in theatres, and while the live-action reboot saw decent turnouts for its Thursday preview screenings, Paramount's Scary Movie proved to be the real attraction for pre-weekend cinemagoers.
MOTU took in $4 million on Thursday, while the horror parody revival posted a very impressive $7.5 million.
Amazon MGM's take on the classic animated series was previously predicted to take in around $35 million in North America this weekend, but Deadline is now reporting that the movie may struggle to hit $50 million worldwide after a $30 million domestic debut.
The Travis Knight-directed fantasy adventure was fairly well-received by critics (71% on Rotten Tomatoes) and fans of the '80s cartoon seem to have embraced it for the most part. Unfortunately, it may simply be a case of general audiences being apathetic about a big-screen take on a 30-year-old property that has never really had mass appeal outside of its core fanbase.
Even so, MOTU is showing a much better 88% on the aggregator's "Popcornmeter," and the hope is that positive word-of-mouth will benefit the PG-13 movie in the long run.
Masters of the Universe has a reported production budget of $175 million (some reckon it's closer to $200M), not factoring in additional P&A costs.
As for Scary Movie, despite an abysmal 29% rating from critics on RT, the R-rated comedy is now looking at a $45M - $50M opening weekend domestically. It should handily claim the No. 1 spot, leaving MOTU to battle it out with A24's horror phenomenon Backrooms for No. 2.
"In MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, Director Travis Knight brings the legendary franchise back to the big screen in this epic live-action adventure. After being separated for 15 years, the Sword of Power leads Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) back to Eternia where he discovers his home shattered under the fiendish rule of Skeletor (Jared Leto). To save his family and his world, Adam must join forces with his closest allies, Teela (Camila Mendes) and Duncan/Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba), and embrace his true destiny as He-Man — the most powerful man in the universe."
Masters of the Universe stars Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam/He-Man, Camila Mendes as Teela, Jared Leto as Skeletor, Idris Elba as Man-At-Arms, Morena Baccarin as The Sorceress and James Purefoy and Charlotte Riley as Adam's parents, King Randor and Queen Marlena. Alison Brie will also feature as Skeletor's second-in-command, Evil-Lyn.
Sam C. Wilson will play Trap Jaw, with Kojo Attah as Tri-Klops, and Kristin Wiig recently joined the cast as the voice of Roboto.
Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch will produce, along with DeVon Franklin.