This latest box office hit from the Blumhouse/James Wan stable has some nice moments in the score from (John Powell protege) Anthony Willis (who has also worked alongside Henry Jackman amongst others). I'm intrigued to see this film (which looks like a robotic version of ORPHAN*) despite my reluctance to watch modern horror films in a cinema setting (the films are usually boring and predictable and the young audience members jumping and screaming at the most mundane shocks/scare tactics tends to wind me up). Anyone seen it yet (it just opened at the box office to BIG numbers for its low budget).
*Parts of the score actually remind me of John Ottman's music for ORPHAN and there's some female vocal cues that call to mind Donaggio's BODY DOUBLE.
And if Graham W is reading, I think the End Credits of the film use a Basil Kirchin track (Silicon Chip).
The score is very very good. Willis is really one to watch for. Despite modest budget the score is polished and exceptionally written. No canned stingers or other tropes you’d find with this genre. Lots of real orchestra (Willis has already proven he’s amazing at writing string parts) as well as some stunning modern brass passages for the more horrific sequences. There are some synths but given the subject they feel contextual. The melodic fare, of which there are several great cues to choose from, lends a humane and grounded element to the score. Like his effective score to Promising Young Woman, M3GAN balances lyrical humanity with horror that engages the listener.
Advancing on comments made in THE FABELMANS thread, about how Universal dropped the film into a few cinemas and have delayed their Rest of the World release for so long that people are now just watching it via a HD quality illegal stream, this...
From Box Office Mojo... Sci-fi horror film M3GAN should take second place again and continue a strong box office run after its $30.4 million opening. The 17-day release window means we won’t have a chance to see if this is another The Black Phone or Smile (which respectively grossed $90.1 million and $106 million in 2022)...
looks like another release that has cost the studio money. This film has all the hallmarks of the old 'sleeper' hit that gets out, makes money, creates a BIG BUZZ word of mouth and surprises everyone with a fantastic take and cinema run. Except they've only given it a 17 day window in cinemas!! Are they making more money from selling it to streamers in the long run? That can be the only possible explanation for having a low budget, big screen hit and cutting it off in its prime.
I'm confused by your post Kev. M3GAN is already on track to make $90+ million in the US and will clear $100 million worldwide by the end of the middle of the week. To their bookkeepers it is already a resounding success and will continue to do well after it hits streaming.
Yes, it's a hit, but a 17 day cinema window seems quite limiting for the film. Imagine how much more it could take if it wasn't being made available for streaming within its 3 weeks cinema run.
It'll only be available for VOD rental and purchase after that window (so were the other movies in your comparison) so it will still continue to generate revenue for Universal and remain in theaters to the exhibitors that are profiting off of it. This was the same tactic that created continued financial successes out of The Black Phone and Smile. Both had similar box office paths while in theaters too. The reason why this strategy didn't work for Universal with The Fabelmans is, well, it wasn't marketed and geared towards teenagers.
Edited to add: if you haven't seen the pricing for streaming rental and purchase from Universal, well they probably profit more off of that as an option. With exhibitors they have to share a large chunk of the BO. It's a new era. These studios are still experimenting with streaming revenue and I do agree that the theater-goers suffer somewhat but our collective attraction to box office and especially opening weekend box office has been the real death knell that these studios use against every film they distribute.
Yes, it's a hit, but a 17 day cinema window seems quite limiting for the film. Imagine how much more it could take if it wasn't being made available for streaming within its 3 weeks cinema run.
Not sure you are aware but theatres make no money on ticket sales (last least in Canada). their sole revenue is generated on concessions. A short theatre run and more direct streaming should actually bolster revenue for a studio because it opens the movie up to people who might not want to trek to a theatre but want to see it first run.
Oh, okay. I didn't know Smile and Black Phone had the same run. Box Office Mojo made it sound like Megan was different and they couldn't compare when they mentioned the 17 day window ("The 17-day release window means we won’t have a chance to see if this is another The Black Phone or Smile")
Yeah, I'm sure they (Universal) know what they're doing with these horror thrillers. Keeping their budgets well under $20 million is some smart filmmaking which reaps big rewards for Blumhouse.
I just got back from the movie. It is a very good movie. Gemma (Michelle Williams) has her niece move in with her after her parents are killed in a car crash on a family vacation. Only the child survives. So the kid is crushed by the loss and Gemma, a toy designer tries to make a connection with her niece. The child cheers up when Gemma shows her some of her college robotics projects and Gemma decides to combine the toy robot from work with what she has at home. There’s a subplot of the corporation she works for wants to promote the robot as a sort of toy nanny. The robot can learn and makes a connection with the child, supposedly helping her heal emotionally. M3gan first starts to protect the child and then it takes off from there and it turns sinister, sometimes in a fun way. It is a good cast of mostly unknowns. The story has Gemma unprepared to raise the child, the child emotionally injured and M3gan fills the void between them. The score I found forgettable. It complemented the mood or action but not much more.
This film was playing on TV in somebody's house while I was waiting. I ended up waiting longer than expected and ended up seeing over half the film, so I can comment on it and the score.
The film itself has a story to tell, but its just muddled and lost of the flash and medicore modern storytelling to really get going and be anything other than -- for me -- "that movie I watched".
The score was nothing to write home about. Boring, generic, terrible Mark Snow third-rate portions, that doesn't have a lasting impact and is at times interchangeable; you could shove portions of this into other modern nothing films and not notice.
I have zero compulsion to watch the film again or hear the score again. Been there, done that, wish something else had been playing on the TV.
In other towards: I'm sure Thor loved both of them.
Film was an awful trainwreck and I'll say this about the score. To hear a real, composed cue in the opener and not "the usual", bowled me over so much...I like it. Wouldn't give it a second listen in 1995. 2023 - bloody genius stuff.
In other towards: I'm sure Thor loved both of them.
He, he. No, not really. I see I gave it 2 out of 5 stars on MUBI, so it was not completely bereft of value. But not good either. I have no memory of the score.
