Summary
- Meg 2: The Trench has a lackluster opening weekend compared to its predecessor, with a domestic box office result of about $28 million.
- Although meeting initial projections, the opening weekend falls significantly short of the original movie's $45.4 million debut.
- The sequel follows Jonas and Jiuming as they team up to battle another dangerous Meg, but has failed to attract the same level of interest from audiences as the first movie.
Meg 2: The Trench has an opening weekend that pales in comparison to the original movie. The franchise began in 2018 with the release of The Meg, which was inspired by the 1997 Steve Alten novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror and followed rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) as he and a team of experts attempted to stop a prehistoric megalodon that was accidentally unleashed from a deep-sea trench. Meg 2, which opened on August 4, sees Jonas returning to team with Jiuming Zhang (Wu Jing) to take down multiple creatures that have escaped from the trench.
Per Deadline, the Meg 2 box office has opened toward the upper end of projections. By the end of its domestic opening weekend, it is expected to have collected about $28 million. While this is a positive result within the bounds of initial expectations, which put it between $20-30 million, it's still a result that falls considerably below the original movie's opening weekend of $45.4 million.
Will Meg 2 Be A Box Office Flop?
There are a few possible reasons for Meg 2 opening below its predecessor. The first is the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, where actors are refraining from promoting projects as they fight for fair pay. Another is the continued Barbenheimer effect, as the buzzy dual release of Barbie and Oppenheimer continues to dominate the box office after their acclaimed debuts on July 21.
Ultimately, Meg 2 will probably follow in the footsteps of the original The Meg, falling only slightly behind by the end of its run. The original The Meg cost $130 million and only ended up making $145 million at the domestic box office. The American and Chinese co-production was buoyed by an international gross that more than doubled this total, bringing its worldwide gross to a whopping $530.2 million.
Meg 2: The Trench will probably be similarly boosted by its international gross, especially considering both Barbie and Oppenheimer have been banned in other regions. The movie is also a co-production with China, and star Wu Jing is the lead of Wolf Warrior 2, the second highest-grossing Chinese movie of all time. With the international star power behind it, it seems likely the sequel will overcome its poor reviews and sluggish domestic start to enjoy another modest worldwide haul.
Source: Deadline