MOVIE NEWS – Back in 2018, Warner Bros. made a huge, somewhat unexpected splash with the first film, and Meg 2 is on the horizon…

The adaptation of Steve Alten’s book of the same name, in which Jason Statham takes on a megalodon thought to be extinct, has proved a massive hit with audiences. It made $530 million at the global box office. Now, five years and a whole world pandemic later, Statham returns in the sequel, Meg 2: The Pit. All in the hope of another late summer blockbuster. This time, however, it looks like the competition will be a bigger problem.

Box Office Pro currently estimates that director Ben Wheatley’s big shark sequel could gross between $22 million and $27 million in its opening weekend.

That’s not exactly what a studio wants to see from a big box office hit, to say the least. The budget has not yet been disclosed. But the first part cost $130 million before marketing. Certainly “The Trench” is no cheaper, as it features more sharks and even a few dinosaurs, among other expensive CGI effects. But to Wheatley’s credit, he tried to get every penny of the budget on the screen.

The original “Meg” topped the charts, opening to $45.4 million, also in early August. But the competition was less fierce. Both “Slender Man” and “BlacKkKlansman” opened that weekend. They would never have competed for the top. The biggest competitor is Mission: Impossible – Fallout, now in its third weekend. In 2023, “Meg 2” will go head-to-head against the family-friendly “Teenage Ninja Turtles: Mutant Chaos”, which promises to be the bigger opener of the two. Meanwhile, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” will still make big money as the Barbenheimer craze shows no signs of slowing down.

Could Meg 2 fail?!

Even at the high end of projections, WB expects a 40% drop in opening weekend compared to the original film. The good news, however, is that The Meg did much better overseas than in North America, bringing in $384.8 million – or 72.6% – of the international total.

This included $153 million from China, and as we have seen before, Hollywood can no longer rely on China after the pandemic.

In the end, it seems that this resume may be a victim of circumstances. It’s likely the studio wouldn’t have waited five years to release it in theatres if Covid hadn’t shut down Hollywood for the better part of a year. The film is no longer fresh in the minds of moviegoers, China is no longer a possibility, and we’ve had a pretty busy summer full of hits and misses. Competition is fierce, and this big-budget shark movie will need much help from moviegoers worldwide to be as successful as its predecessor.

Meg 2: The Trench will be released in cinemas on 4 August 2023.

Source: Box Office Pro