Warning: Major spoilers for Meg 2: The Trench below!
Summary
- Despite poor critical reviews, Meg 2: The Trench grossed $142 million in its opening weekend, proving the franchise's long-term viability.
- The film's success is largely attributed to its Chinese-American co-production and appeal to the Chinese market, with a major Chinese star in a lead role.
- Meg 2 offers a refreshing and simple concept compared to other summer releases, delivering cheap thrills and a switch-your-brain-off experience.
Meg 2: The Trench grossed a very healthy $142 million during its opening weekend despite bad critical reviews, and there are many reasons why. The original Meg was also something of a surprise box office success in 2018, as the film was based on a cult horror novel that at that point was already 20 years old. A film adaptation had been trapped in development hell for years, with directors like Eli Roth trying and failing to get it moving. Thanks to several factors like great marketing and an international cast, The Meg would take a $530 million-sized bite out of the worldwide box office.
Meg 2: The Trench is the real test of the franchise's long-term viability, and it arrived five years on from the original's release. The sequel surfaced to some poor reviews, with Meg 2 receiving only 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite some predictions of doom over its financial prospects, Meg 2 recovered its entire production budget in its opening weekend alone and is on course to turn a nice profit. Its success shouldn't come as a major shock, as the Jason Statham-fronted follow-up had many plus points in its corner.
10 Meg 2: The Trench's Box Office Is Boosted By China
Just like the first entry, Meg 2: The Trench is a Chinese-American co-production. Accordingly, the film is geared towards the Chinese market just as much as international audiences, which includes having a major Chinese star like Wu Jing (Wolf Warrior) in a lead role. The film made over $30 million in North America, but the remaining $112 million came from overseas, with a big chunk of that coming from China. It should be noted The Meg series gets around China's film quota that rejects many American blockbusters by virtue of the fact the series is 100% Chinese-owned and is considered a Chinese production made for a global audience.
9 Meg 2's Reviews Were Always Unlikely To Impact People Seeing It
Rotten Tomatoes scores should never be the sore metric of a film's critical reception. That said, Meg 2's measly 28% score is an indicator of how disliked the sequel is among major critics. On the flip side, it has a 73% audience score because The Trench is, in essence, critic-proof. Meg 2 is a film that's essentially sold on its poster; that is, Statham fighting a giant shark. Those who enjoyed The Meg wanted more of the same, and there's a beautiful simplicity to Meg 2's premise that makes it a prototypical popcorn flick.
8 Meg 2: The Trench Offers Something Different To Recent Summer Releases
Meg 2: The Trench takes audiences ever further into the titular Mariana Trench, an exotic underwater world filled with some nasty monsters. In addition to just being visually distinct from its rivals, Meg 2 just offers moviegoers something different. It doesn't have a bloated runtime, a large cast of characters, or a complicated, time-hopping narrative to keep track of. Instead, it's a true switch-your-brain-off kind of summer blockbuster that delivers on its core concept within a lean runtime. Meg 2: The Trench is far from flawless, but there's something to be said for a film that offers some good, old-fashioned cheap thrills.
7 Meg 2 Has Strong Franchise Box Office Pedigree
The Meg was the sort of blockbuster that tended to evaporate from people's minds a week or so after they saw it. Even so, the film was a genuine big hit, especially for the first entry in a potential franchise. Meg 2: The Trench builds on that success and audience awareness, with the marketing making it clear that while the sequel is offering more of the same, it was still adding new monsters and threats to a proven concept.
6 Meg 2 Had Excellent Marketing
According to an interview (via Variety) with Catherine Ying, CEO of Meg co-producers CMC Pictures, the original's box office came in equal parts from China, America and the rest of the world. While international box office contributed to The Meg's shock success, it should be remembered that the film had a fantastic marketing campaign, complete with tongue-in-cheek posters and trailers. Meg 2: The Trench largely repeated this tactic, and again, "Jason Statham vs Giant Shark" really lets viewers know what kind of movie they're buying a ticket for.
5 Meg 2 Is One Of 2023's Cheaper Blockbusters
Outside of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, 2023 has been a poor year for blockbusters thus far. Many have underperformed or outright bombed, with the likes of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny or The Flash having inflated budgets to boot. In comparison, Meg 2: The Trench was produced for a (relatively) reasonable sum of $140 million, meaning it had less of an uphill battle to turn a profit. Combined with its China-friendly nature, The Trench was practically guaranteed to at least make its money back.
4 Meg 2 Had No Franchise Baggage For Audiences
2023 has had a summer filled with a lot of sequels, including Indiana Jones 5, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Fast X. That means audiences coming to theaters are expected to do some homework first, including brushing up on the lore and backstory of each franchise.
Meg 2: The Trench requires none of this, and viewers don't even need to have seen the original film to understand the sequel. This lack of franchise baggage may sound like a small thing, but it's a refreshing element for viewers who want to just enjoy themselves without having to puzzle over references to past movies they haven't seen.
3 Meg 2 Had The Jason Statham Factor
In the Hollywood of old, it was movie stars that audiences turned out for. The focus on franchises built around characters instead of actors has flipped that dynamic, although certain names like Tom Cruise still lure weary filmgoers to theaters. While he might not often be recognized as such, Statham is another reliable brand and one with a wildly consistent box-office track record. As a leading man, Jason Statham's action movies have grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide (via The Numbers), and as part of an ensemble like Fast & Furious, he's earned nearly THREE times that. In short, Statham is a name many viewers trust to deliver a good time.
2 Meg 2 ALSO Had The Wu Jing Factor
Another factor in Meg 2: The Trench's box-office total is that it had Wu Jing as a co-lead. Just as the first outing had another major Chinese star in Li Bingbing, The Trench was smart to add Wu to the line-up. In the past decade, he's emerged as one of China's biggest stars, thanks to the enormous success of the Wolf Warrior and The Wandering Earth franchises. Wu's presence in Meg 2 alone was likely enough to ensure the sequel's success in certain markets.
1 Meg 2 Played Into Audience Feedback
In the aforementioned Variety article, CMC Picture's Catherine Ying revealed that after The Meg's global box office turn, the company hired a consultancy firm to survey expectations for the sequel. The biggest takeaway for Meg 2: The Trench was that audiences wanted more monsters and further exploration of the Trench itself. The sequel ticked both boxes, in addition to sticking close to the mix of action, comedy and mild horror that made the first film work.
Source: Variety, The Numbers