Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum attended the premiere of the company’s new film M3GAN in costume as the viral killer doll at the center of the film. M3GAN, which debuts in theaters on January 6, 2023, stars Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, and Brian Jordan Alvarez, and follows a young woman who becomes the caretaker for her niece, introducing her to an AI doll companion named M3GAN whose protective instincts turn deadly. A peculiar moment from the film’s trailer in which M3GAN dances in a hallway quickly went viral and was later recreated by a troupe of dancers at the film’s L.A. premiere on December 8.
On his official Twitter account, Blum shares a photo from the official M3GAN premiere. Blum, who is a producer on the film, is featured in the center of the photo wearing a full M3GAN costume, posing alongside four of the dancers who performed at the premiere. He shares how fun he thought the event was, saying that “I’m going to wear this for the rest of my life.” Check out the photo below:
Will M3GAN Be The First Horror Hit Of 2023?
The fact that M3GAN has been able to generate so much attention a month ahead of its release during the holiday season (when general audiences tend to focus less on horror) is a tremendous achievement. Especially considering the fact that the general pop culture conversation has largely turned toward the films vying for Oscar attention, like Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All, Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, and Todd Field’s Tár, this word-of-mouth buzz could mean the film is set to become the first horror hit of 2023, continuing 2022’s trend of strong showings for horror in the domestic box office.
However, being a viral sensation doesn’t necessarily guarantee financial returns. That was certainly not the case for the Sony Spider-Verse film Morbius, which premiered earlier this year. The film was the subject of much viral comedy on social media after its initially lukewarm box-office reception. However, when producers sought to capitalize on this attention and re-released Morbius in theaters two months after its original premiere, the film only garnered an additional $250,000.
January-release horror films have also garnered a generally unfavorable perception in the 2010s, because of the release of such poorly regarded films as Devil’s Due in 2014 and Underworld: Blood Wars in 2016. However, that has changed in recent years, especially in the COVID-19 era, when film releases are more spread out. For instance, Scream (2022) was released in January and became a substantial enough success to earn a 2023 sequel, even during the surge of the Omicron variant. Blumhouse has also achieved pre-pandemic January success with their hit 2019 crossover film Glass, which might signal that they know exactly what they’re doing with this release window for M3GAN.
Source: Jason Blum/Twitter
