2023’s Most Important Movie Lesson Involves Elemental, M3GAN, And Not Betting On The Internet

Of course, virality can help a film, which seems to have been the case with “M3GAN.” Gerard Johnstone and Akela Cooper’s killer android helper was a viral sensation, inspiring fans to dress up as the character for Halloween 2022 before the film had even hit theaters. Short of the Barbenheimer takeover, no other film this year had a viral presence quite like “M3GAN,” and similarly to Barbenheimer … it was completely organic. The M3GAN dance wasn’t originally supposed to be in the trailer, which likely would have prevented the film from becoming such a pre-release sensation. But this little moment appealed to the three most powerful demographics in determining pop culture fame — teenage girls, Black twitter, and the LGBTQIA+ community. “M3GAN” would have been profitable regardless because it’s a genuinely fantastic movie, but hitting those three demographics guaranteed instant success.

And yet, “M3GAN” is not this year’s highest-grossing horror film. The results of September and October, which include releases for “The Exorcist: Believer,” “Saw X,” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” have yet to be seen, but “Insidious: The Red Door” has already dethroned horror’s newest bestie at the box office. That box office performance is, of course, influenced by a return to an already successful franchise, but “Insidious: The Red Door” has been quietly earning money under the radar. There aren’t a bunch of memes of Josh Lambert floating around, nor are there dance troupes dressed like the Lipstick Face Demon doing flash mobs. It’s just a solid horror movie making money because people wanted to see it.

For what it’s worth, “M3GAN” did outperform “Scream VI,” so she did take down one other legacy horror series, and that aerial flip certainly played an important role.