Masters Of The Universe, Transformers One & Honor Among Thieves Prove Box Office Is Broken

Published Jul 27, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock. This year, audiences have finally pushed back against Hollywood’s relentless onslaught of mediocre movies and pointless franchise expansions. During the unprecedented industry boom of the mid-to-late 2010s, low-effort Marvel movies and live-action Disney remakes were printing money. Audiences said they wanted fresh, original stories, but the billion-dollar-grossing near-shot-for-shot remakes of Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast told a different story. Hollywood studios didn’t go creatively bankrupt for their health; they just followed the money. If sequels make money and original stories don’t, guess which kind of movie the shareholders will be asking for. Moviegoers were showing up in droves to see forgettable fluff like Ant-Man and the Wasp and the live-action Lion King, so the studios got comfortable making forgettable fluff. But, in the year of our Lord 2026, a lot of audiences have finally stopped tolerating the slop and put away their wallets. Supergirl, The Mandalorian and Grogu, and the live-action Moana remake all seemed like an easy hit, cashing in on earlier successes, but they’ve all either underperformed or outright bombed, while exciting original movies like Obsession and Backrooms and Project Hail Mary have outgrossed them all. But there are still a few anomalies that haven’t been accounted for. Clearly, audiences are sick of seeing the same old I.P. rehashed and repackaged endlessly, and clearly, they want to see young, hungry storytellers like Curry Barker and Kane Parsons put their own stamp on the medium. But not every repackaged I.P. is slop; some of those movies have turned out pretty great, and still failed. Masters Of The Universe's Box Office Failure Follows A Troubling Pattern It used to be that if a movie came out with a familiar I.P. in its title, it got people’s attention, and if it got strong reviews, those people showed up to watch it. But now, even when a recognizable brand like Masters of the Universe comes to theaters, and critics laud it as a genuine crowd-pleaser and a really fun time at the movies, audiences still won’t show up. Masters of the Universe isn’t an isolated incident; it’s part of a pattern. Much like Transformers One a couple of years ago, and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves a year before that, Masters of the Universe failed at the box office despite being based on a major franchise and, more importantly, being really well-received. Long gone are the days when an entry in any franchise was a guaranteed blockbuster; these days, they have to earn that theatrical attendance. Casual viewers will only go out and buy a ticket for a Marvel movie if they’ve heard it’s worth it — a middling slog like Captain America: Brave New World just won’t cut it anymore. But there are still some cases where a studio releases a movie cashing in on an I.P., critics praise it as a great popcorn film that appeals to everyone, whether you’re familiar with the I.P. or not, and audiences still don’t show up. We saw it recently with Amazon’s He-Man movie. Masters of the Universe took the Thor: Ragnarok approach to big fantasy action filmmaking. It has all the dazzling blockbuster spectacle you want to see, but it also has a self-effacing, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, and it also has a lot of heart — it’s got it all, just like Ragnarok. But, unlike Ragnarok, it unceremoniously flopped at the box office. Transformers One and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves achieved the exact same blend of heart, humor, and spectacle — a formula that used to be a sure-fire path to success at the box office — and they both flopped, too. So, what went wrong? '80s I.P. Has Lost Its Nostalgic Charm Masters of the Universe and Transformers One have one glaring thing in common that points to the reason for their financial failure: the I.P.s they’re based on are both from the 1980s. In 2016, the monster success of Stranger Things made ‘80s nostalgia all the rage. The music, the fashion, even Reagan’s politics — it all made a comeback. Hollywood responded by rebooting Indiana Jones, rebooting Ghostbusters, bringing back Michael Keaton’s Batman, and remaking It as essentially Stranger Things: The Movie. And for a while, that approach worked, but that ‘80s I.P. is starting to lose its nostalgic charm. Nostalgia works on a 30-year cycle, and the ‘80s are more than 30 years in the rearview mirror now. It’s time for the ‘90s to take over as the center of our collective nostalgia. Anyone who’s old enough to have nostalgia for the old He-Man and Transformers cartoons is spending their free time on the pickleball court, not at the movie theater. I really enjoyed the new Masters of the Universe movie, but I was born in 1998; I had no prior familiarity with the franchise going in. I didn’t go and see it in a theater because I love that franchise; it just looked like a fun popcorn movie, and that’s exactly what it was. But the numbers show that existing Masters of the Universe fans are too old to bother with a new movie adaptation, and any potential new fans are too skeptical and strapped for cash to buy a movie ticket for something they might not like. The sturdy, reliable I.P.s are still printing money — for every Supergirl, there’s a Toy Story 5; for every live-action Moana, there’s a live-action Lilo & Stitch — but the studios might need to get a little pickier with the I.P. they choose to adapt. I’d hate to see beloved franchises like Transformers and Masters of the Universe die, but that seems to be the message that audiences are sending the studios: move on. The I.P.s that are succeeding today are from the ‘90s and early 21st century, because that’s what today’s parents are nostalgic about, and eager to share with their own kids: Toy Story, Lilo & Stitch, Minecraft, Inside Out, Jurassic Park, The Devil Wears Prada. Occasionally, boomers will come out in full force to support an ‘80s I.P. — Top Gun: Maverick outgrossed The Avengers — but it’s getting rarer and rarer. It’s time to let the ‘80s die. Kill it, if you have to. Masters of the Universe 8/10 Release Date June 3, 2026 Runtime 141 minutes Director Travis Knight Writers Aaron Nee, Chris Butler, Dave Callaham, Adam Nee Cast Nicholas Galitzine Adam Glenn / He-Man