How “M3GAN” Hit the Box Office Via TikTok; Continuation is already underway

EXCLUSIVE: James Wan has been dubbed by fans as responsible for killer doll films, especially his own Magic franchise spin-off, Annabel.

“It’s funny, I really haven’t done it before,” says the horror writer. And that was his main reason for creation M3GAN with screenwriter Akela Cooper.

“In my previous puppet films, they don’t kill anyone. Annabelle never gets up and walks around. Everyone says I’m the killer pop man. So I said I’m going to make a great puppet show for a brand new generation. Today’s kids didn’t grow up with Chucky like we did,” continues Wan, who produced the PG-13 film and co-wrote the story with Cooper.

And so M3GAN is born. And born big. The Universal, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster title smashed their $17-$20 million predictions last weekend with a $30.2 million start and finished second in a U.S. and Canadian market that closed four weekends later was still dominated by James Cameron Avatar: The street water which made $45 million and passed the half billion mark. M3GAN gets off to a fantastic start at the box office, especially with an original piece of IP, and the film’s success pushes the talents of New Zealand filmmaker Gerard Johnstone out of the Hollywood canon. Not to mention, it’s a great start to the eventual collaboration between Blumhouse and Wan’s Atomic Monster, which is in final merger talks. We learned on Friday that a sequel is already in early development, according to sources.

Although the film was shot in June 2021 in Johnstone’s New Zealand (one of the few safe havens filming at the time during the pandemic), we understand that Universal has always believed in the theatrical version M3GAN. Though such Blumhouse titles hold fire starter, Halloween kills and Halloween ends went to theaters day and night with the studio’s sister streamer Peacock M3GAN We’ve always had an exclusive theatrical release date. At the first gross level, the image is in an exclusive 17-day theatrical window.

“I wanted to make a film that was really connected and emotional,” Wan tells Deadline. He was drawn to Cooper for her old-fashioned horror sensibility and penchant for dark humor. The two got to work maliciously for Warner Bros M3GANon which she had a story and a script – on credits.

“M3GAN plays on many different levels: it’s scary, terrifying, moving and emotional at the same time,” says Wan. “We wanted to focus on something technological rather than supernatural.”

who to direct M3GAN? Both Wan and Ryan Turek, EVP of Development and Production at Blumhouse, were big fans of New Zealand comedy and horror director Gerard Johnstone after seeing his film in 2014. housebound which started at SXSW. Johnstone, who cut his teeth as a television comedy director housebound by the New Zealand Film Commission for $400,000. When it comes to a filmmaker shooting their first film in New Zealand through commission funding, horror films are most likely to get the green light because they are fundable.

Housebound follows a young woman who is forced to return to her childhood home after being placed under house arrest. She suspects something evil is lurking there. The photo eventually found its way to Netflix.

“It was a weird practical decision,” Johnstone tells us of how he made Housebound his directorial debut, after originally seeing it as a fun idea for horror. The first cut didn’t work well and needed to be creepier. So Johnstone introduced himself to the genre through a stack of Wan and Blumhouse DVDs. Peter Jackson got wind of Housebound and launched Johnstone’s career, the filmmaker was represented by the same agency as them lord of the rings Filmmaker, CAA and manager Ken Kamins.

“I was a big fan of Gerard’s film housebound and I kept telling everyone about it,” says Wan.

“It’s very similar M3GAN In that sense, it’s horror, but strong comedy. He has that sensitivity and that’s something M3GAN wanted: someone who knows how to walk the fine line of sound, who’s scary one minute but not afraid to have dark humor the next,” he continues M3GAN producer and writer.

For the role of M3GAN’s owner, Cady, Johnstone, Wan and Blumhouse chose Violet McGraw, whose sister Madeleine McGraw starred in his summer hit. The black phone.

“She did something dramatic during the audition where she cried the whole time. She was so vulnerable and vulnerable, my heart broke. When I met her via Zoom, she was very nice. It was an incredible machine and completely off the mark,” Johnstone says of working with McGraw.

When it came to actually finding M3GAN The filmmakers originally chose a Canadian actress because they planned to shoot in Montreal before the pandemic. But when production moved to New Zealand, they ended up with Amie Donald. Importantly, the actress had to be a stunt performer and Donald was over the top in that she was a national dance champion, a brown belt in karate and a contortionist.

“She could walk on all fours, get off the ground without using her hands like a cobra – the stuntmen and movement coaches were amazed,” says Johnstone.

But what lasted M3GAN to another level was Universal’s pressure under Chief Marketing Officer Michael Moses. They immediately saw a meme that would catch fire, especially on TikTok, in Megan’s hanging swing dance, a hashtag sensation that garnered 1.3 billion views from #M3GAN, #M3GANMovie and #M3GANDance. All this traffic was more organic without a M3GAN Dance challenge on social media because the university really wanted dance to catch on. Uni has a company of M3GAN Dancers who showed off their gear at the world premiere last month for the performance of the Taylor Swift song from the “It’s Nice to Have a Friend” trailer, but that’s not all. They literally toured, stopping at the Empire State Building, subways, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy KimmelLive! and even the front of The American Girl doll store, as well as the Rams game at halftime last Sunday.

the M3GANs in the Chinese theater:

Uni cut a trailer to include it M3GAN‘s dry, sassy, ​​chic tone that captivated under-25 female audiences with over 250 million views worldwide. Megan Thee Stallion saluted the creepy doll on social media shortly after the first trailer was released, writing: “I’m not biased but I think they made this movie for me! I will be FIRST in line for M3GAN!!” 80s monster doll Chucky started fighting M3GAN on social media. The trailer generated several trending topics on Twitter, YouTube and GIPHY. M3GAN ranked by all the major year-end trends like Spotify Wrapped and Lensa AI. Additionally, an AI “M3gan Bot” was launched via Messenger and Twitter, allowing fans to talk to M3gan and play simple games. In return, M3GAN sent fans a photo of her with a framed photo of her new BFF: her.

Universal continued to hit the Gen Z demo M3GAN as main sponsor of Bad Bunny’s new music video, where she greeted viewers of his new blockbuster video debut with a custom video. TV spots for the trailer were during the NBA Christmas games, five spots showed college football games and during holiday specials. There was also a Mitu Snapchat Takeover, Snap Grenade, a YouTube Female Film Lovers Awareness Accelerator, and a Reddit Horror Category Takeover.

According to RelishMix, the YouTube views from the fans posted were incredible M3GAN Check out locations and other reposts of mashup trailers. Four studio videos generated a massive viral rate of 86:1 M3GAN. Before the opening, RelishMix saw the fire M3GAN with its 1.5 billion social media universe on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok and destroy previous horror SMU compositions Shout (126.2 million SMU/$30 million opened) and Narration: The final key at 114 million SMU / $29.6 million).

“We worked with Michael on 35 films. When you see this team get excited about a film, they pull out all the stops. As a producer, when you feel that enthusiasm from marketing, you get a warm and fuzzy feeling,” Blum told Deadline.

After Blumhouse’s fingerprints with To clean and paranoidrightMold activity and pickup trucks of Saw and Call, M3GAN is another example of the power of horror films at the box office. They are low risk, but when they hit, it’s like winning the lottery. We, as moviegoers, have complained about the high risk of original IP in cinemas, especially with films aimed at women. But M3GAN defied such statistical cynicism and attracted an audience that was 53% female and 44% under the age of 25.

“Everyone said we lost the under-25 audience,” says Jason Blum, “M3GAN is a clear indication that we have not done so.”

“If you make the right movie, and do it the right way, audiences are there,” says the three-time Oscar-nominated producer, “audiences crave funny, entertaining movies. There is not enough.”