Original He-Man Dolph Lundgren Stunned by Failure of This Summer’s ‘Masters of the Universe’
The guest appearance by the towering Rocky IV star and 80s icon Dolph Lundgren in this year’s Masters of the Universe reboot did not give it the rub he and others may have hoped for, since it bombed hard. Between franchise fatigue and the narrow niche nostalgia for He-Man, quite a few saw that disappointing performance on the horizon.
Unfortunately, Lundgren was not one of them. Moreover, perhaps no one was more surprised than he. Having high expectations, he was very dismayed by the film’s poor performance in light of its heavy promotion and the positive spin he was sold by the studio.
“Yeah, I was a bit disappointed. I mean, everybody told me it’s going to do great,” he recently shared. “I’m not a huge believer in looking at the box office and that influencing how I feel that much emotionally about the picture. But I did think about it like, ‘Oh, okay. That was strange that didn’t do better.'”
“And I don’t know why that is. They did a lot of marketing; they did a lot of press,” he continued. “I was part of it, some of it. I don’t know where it’s at now; I mean, I think it did fairly well overseas as well. I’m not sure what that means really.”
Despite the strong push Masters had going for it, and some good reviews, the would-be blockbuster grossed only $103 million worldwide against an estimated $170–200M budget. That range might not even factor in the marketing costs; those figures often don’t.
Nevertheless, Amazon believes it can turn a negative into a positive when its theatrical flop lands on Prime Video. Not seeing it as a total loss, the company’s representatives view theaters as one mere part of a broader “holistic distribution strategy” they believe will drive traffic and engagement to their streaming service.
How Masters of the Universe performs on streaming could decide if there is a sequel, depending on the scale. Director Travis Knight acknowledged the larger world of He-Man, and a post-credits scene introduced She-Ra, the Princess of Power.
Still, reports claiming there will be a sequel are premature and strictly speculative. Amazon Studios has not officially announced anything new regarding a spinoff, follow-up, or any piece of new He-Man media for that matter.
