2025 was a big year for cinema, particularly when it came to science fiction. The genre delivered back-to-back blockbusters and critically acclaimed hits with films like Avatar: Fire and Ash, Jurassic World Rebirth, Companion, and Frankenstein, but not every movie was a top performer. Some movies fell flat in terms of commercial and critical success, and one of the biggest sci-fi flops of the year just lost its exclusive streaming spot on Peacock and moved to another streaming service.
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After becoming one of the biggest box office surprises with a $181 million worldwide gross, M3gan’s 2025 sequel, M3gan 2.0, was a massive flop when it grossed just $39 million against a budget of $15–25 million. The Blumhouse movie, which sees that titular AI-driven robot rebuilt to combat a humanoid military robot called AMELIA, joined Peacock following its disappointing stint in theaters. The film’s exclusive streaming window at the NBCUniversal platform that began in September abruptly stopped on January 26th when M3gan 2.0 left Peacock and began streaming exclusively on Netflix.
M3gan 2.0’s Action-Heavy Shift Fell Flat With Viewers
The fall from M3gan to M3gan 2.0 was pretty drastic, and not just in terms of box office numbers. The sequel earned just a 57% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes compared to the original’s “Certified Fresh” 93% rating. M3gan 2.0 simply wasn’t the movie fans thought it would be. The sequel abandoned the original’s winning horror-comedy blend in favor of a campy, espionage-driven, action-comedy focus that failed to meet fan expectations and the first film’s viral, campy charm.
Rather than capturing the first film’s viral, campy charm, M3gan 2.0 felt more like a watered-down sequel that stripped M3gan of the sinister attitude that made her a horror icon in the original and made her a far less terrifying, unpredictable threat and resulted in a lack of suspense. ComicBook’s Kofi Outlaw gave the movie a 2 out of 5 and called it “a mishmash of style and tones that is laughably cringeworthy” and takes “some baffling detours” but is still “even more dumb fun than the original.”
Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum later acknowledged some missteps led to M3gan 2.0’s underperformance, saying on The Town podcast that they “thought M3gan was like Superman—we could do anything to her… we kind of classically overthought how powerful people’s engagement was, really, with her.” Despite those missteps, the movie hasn’t been a complete loss. M3gan 2.0 holds an 81% audience rating, and it had some streaming success on Peacock. It remains to be seen if the film jumps onto Netflix’s streaming charts.
What’s New on Peacock?
Peacock may have just lost exclusive streaming rights to M3gan 2.0, but there are plenty of other reasons to stick around. January brought a great lineup of films to the platform that included everything from The Green Mile to the animated How to Train Your Dragon films. That lineup is set to grow in February with the arrival of titles like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Happy Gilmore, and Man on Fire.
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