2026 has been a good year for sci-fi movies, but not every new sci-fi film that hits theaters finds the box office success studio executives were hoping for. 2026 began with a pair of sci-fi bombs in Greenland 2: Migration and Mercy, but it’s poised to continue bounding back in the final few months of the year with new releases like Dune: Part Three. Gerard Butler returned to star in the long-awaited Greenland sequel, but a $90 million production budget left the film with a near-$200 million break-even point. Mercy, which stars Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson, didn’t struggle as much at the box office thanks to a more modest $60 million budget. The film has also found streaming redemption on Prime Video as one of the platform’s most-watched titles of 2026.
Back in 2023, one of the most shocking hits of the year came in the first week of the year, when Blumhouse released M3GAN into theaters. The wacky AI sci-fi thriller/horror movie cost only $12 million to make, but the film became an international sensation, grossing over $180 million at the global box office to make it one of the most profitable movies of the entire year. The same can’t be said for the film’s sequel, M3GAN 2.0, which hit theaters just last year. M3GAN 2.0 cost $25 million to make, but the movie grossed only $39 million. The horror/sci-fi sequel has found a streaming home on Netflix in the last few months, but the streamer recently announced that the last day to watch the movie on the platform will be on November 25. The first film is also on Netflix but not leaving the platform anytime soon.
M3GAN 2.0 was written and directed by original M3GAN director Gerard Johnstone, and the film stars Allison Williams as Gemma, Violet McGraw as Cady, with Amie Donald and Jenna Davis playing M3gan. The official synopsis for the film, which holds scores of 57% from critics and 81% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, reads as follows:
“Two years after M3GAN, a marvel of artificial intelligence, went rogue and embarked on a murderous rampage and was subsequently destroyed, M3GAN's creator Gemma has become a high-profile author and advocate for government oversight of A.I. Meanwhile, Gemma's niece Cady, now 14, has become a teenager, rebelling against Gemma's overprotective rules. Unbeknownst to them, the underlying tech for M3GAN has been stolen and misused by a powerful defense contractor to create a military-grade weapon known as Amelia, the ultimate killer infiltration spy.
But as Amelia's self-awareness increases, she becomes decidedly less interested in taking orders from humans. Or in keeping them around. With the future of human existence on the line, Gemma realizes that the only option is to resurrect M3GAN and give her a few upgrades, making her faster, stronger, and more lethal. As their paths collide, the original A.I. is about to meet her match.”
Check out M3GAN 2.0 before it is removed from Netflix later this month and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of all the biggest sci-fi movies.
