M3GAN: Horror robot doll turns meme fame into box office success

M3GAN, a horror film about a seemingly sweet AI doll, became an instant viral success last year when users rushed to recreate and rework a sinister and sassy dance routine from its trailer.

Now, it has followed that up by beating expectations at the North American box office in its first weekend on release.

The film made $30.2m (£24.9m) over the weekend, well above predictions of between $17m-$20m (£14m-£16.5m).

“Word-of-mouth is through the roof,” said Jim Orr from its studio Universal.

That put M3GAN second in the US and Canada box office chart behind Avatar: The Way of Water, which took another $45m (£37m) as it became the seventh highest-grossing movie in history.

M3GAN is short for Model 3 Generative Android, and the robot is instructed to befriend and protect an eight-year-old girl whose parents have been killed in a car crash.

M3GAN’s initial innocent nature soon takes a more menacing turn when it begins to take its duties to protect young Cady very seriously indeed.

When the trailer came out in October, viewers immediately picked up on one scene – when a blank-faced M3GAN does a childlike but chilling dance before pursuing another victim.

That was swiftly turned into a meme with alternative soundtracks from Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Megan Thee Stallion – who gave her namesake her seal of approval – while users also recreated it themselves.

“The memes, the copies of the dance, people just understood her in this way that I absolutely loved, and we just thought, ‘OK, job done. They get her.’ She belongs to them now, this is amazing,”co-star and executive producer Allison Williams told Insider.

“They are taking great care of her. They’re deploying her in the most hilarious ways to make fun of people. They just got this fierce best friend vibe from her and it’s just been an utter joy.”

Videos with the hashtags #M3gan, #M3gandance and #M3ganmovie have now been viewed a combined 1.5 billion times on TikTok.

Empire wrote: “Even before the film has arrived, M3GAN has become, by internet parlance, iconic.” Buzzfeed said the character had become “an instant legend”, while The Cut billed M3GAN as “cinema’s latest and most murderous it girl”.

Comparisons have been made with previous demonic dolls like Annabelle and Chucky from Child’s Play.

M3GAN producer James Wan described the creation to Empire as “Annabelle meets The Terminator”, while M3GAN even got embroiled in a Twitter rivalry with Chucky.

Reviews have helped its success, with IndieWire’s film critic saying “M3GAN is poised to crack the murder-doll pantheon and stay there forever”, although Slant said it “too often pulls its punches” with the horror.

The film has already more than recouped its $12m (£9.9m) budget, and its box office performance makes it the first cinema hit to be released in 2023.

It is also an increasingly rare example of a film outside an established franchise that has tempted fans into cinemas in large numbers, something producer Jason Blum took delight in, tweeting: “Movies are back!!!”

David A Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research told the AFP news agency: “Horror movies are showing no slowdown at the box office.

“Young moviegoers want to see them with their friends, on the big screen, for the maximum thrill.”

M3GAN is released in UK cinemas on Friday.