There was a time when the M3GAN franchise looked like a new golden goose for Blumhouse. The original film, simply titled M3GAN, became a viral sensation upon release in 2022. Written by genre veterans Akela Cooper (Malignant, Hell Fest, The Nun II) and directed by Gerard Johnstone, the first film was both critically praised and commercially successful, appearing to cement the titular antagonist’s role as a new fixture of popular culture.
However, just a few short years later, this initial reception has been entirely upended. And there is perhaps no better evidence of this than the fact that the M3GAN spinoff, Soulm8te, was just suddenly released exclusively for purchase on digital streaming services, eschewing long-established plans for a theatrical release in favor of simply dropping it with little marketing. You can watch Soulm8te right now, from the comfort of your own home, if you’re keen, and that illustrates a massive fall from grace for the once-promising M3GAN franchise. So what happened?
Well, things began to go awry last year, when M3GAN 2.0, the sequel, released to negative reviews and middling audience reception. Notably, that film was written and directed by Johnstone, with Cooper only receiving a co-writer’s credit for “story by” rather than actually assisting in the penning of the script. Under Johnstone’s creative direction, the sequel opted to lean harder into the darkly comedic undertones of the first film, embrace the viral reception of it, and attempt to pull off a Terminator 2: Judgement Day-esque leap in terms of genre-altering.
The first trailer released to audiences for M3GAN 2.0 was of the titular antagonist essentially doing a runway show in silhouette to Chappell Roan’s “Femininomenon,” before turning directly to the camera and effectively announcing her return in a new sequel. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that the film itself would feature M3GAN as an unlikely protagonist, squaring off against a new model of AI robot, in a film that was more action-oriented, ala the evolution from The Terminator to Terminator 2.
However, the actual substance and financial foundation to back up all of these ambitions turned out to not be there. For reference, Terminator 2’s budget was approximately $100 million, unadjusted, back in 1991. The original Terminator had been made for only $6 million, so this illustrated a truly insane leap in terms of what James Cameron and co. could pull off for the sequel. Compare this to M3GAN, where the original film’s budget was $12 million and M3GAN 2.0’s budget was $20 million. Sure, this meant that, like the first film, M3GAN 2.0 had a much shorter distance to cross in order to turn a profit, but it also meant that it didn’t have the ability to really sell what it was advertising.
This left a sour taste in the mouths of audiences and critics alike, and M3GAN 2.0 flopped at the summer box office. Thus, the already in-the-works spinoff, Soulm8te was left in an odd state of limbo. The fact that Blumhouse opted to release this thing straight to streaming with little-to-no fanfare speaks volumes about how little faith they had in the film, though. In a year where there have been multiple horror breakout sensations and the genre has routinely turned a more-than-nifty profit at the box office, opting to forego even releasing Soulm8te theatrically at all is essentially a killing blow to the legitimacy of any further M3GAN offerings.
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