Not even Skeletor is laughing at how much He-Man failed at the box office in 2026. After nearly twenty years of false starts, the Masters of the Universe reboot, which many would argue genuinely captures the spirit of the ’80s franchise, arrived in movie theaters on June 5, 2026, with a soft thump — a mere $54.3 million globally in its opening weekend. And although most of the people who’ve seen it enjoyed the film (Fortress of Solitude’s Sergio Pereira included), it’s hard not to call it a massive failure for Amazon/MGM. But, apparently, despite all the signs being there, nobody saw it come. Least of all Dolph Lundgren.
The Masters of the Universe reboot did a lot of things right. It has a great star-studded cast, a director with genuine love for the material and a marketing budget that pushed the film on every platform — you can’t walk the streets without seeing a movie poster. And yet, $102.8 million worldwide against a production budget estimated between $170 and $200 million is not the result anyone probably predicted.
Now, Dolph Lundgren is sharing his disappointment publicly. The actor who first lifted the Power Sword back in 1987 appeared in the reboot in a small cameo role, told ComicBook’s Chris Killian: “Yeah, I was a bit disappointed. I mean, everybody told me it’s going to do great. 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. Um 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. 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.”
Lundgren was honest that the film’s failure stung a bit, especially after all the promo stuff. It is worth noting, however, that the marketing campaign itself had some notable gaps — particularly around Jared Leto’s Skeletor, who was conspicuously sidelined from trailers and press despite actually being one of the film’s most intriguing selling points. The irony is that everyone seems to love his Skeletor. So, maybe Jared Leto’s box office poison reputation may have still hurt the film indirectly, but it shouldn’t have.
Masters of the Universe crossed the $100 million worldwide mark in its third weekend of release, but with a budget that likely required somewhere in the range of $340–500 million at the global box office just to break even, that’s a pretty huge failure — even if Amazon isn’t painting it as one. It’s one of the biggest box office bombs of the year, despite what they’re saying publicly. Amazon MGM’s domestic distribution chief Kevin Wilson went to great lengths to downplay the theatrical underperformance, pointing to streaming as the longer play — a strategy the studio described as validating their “holistic distribution strategy.”
But if everyone is completely honest, He-Man has never actually had a good run at the box office. Dolph Lundgren’s original 1987 Masters of the Universe was also a box office disaster — a $22 million production that grossed just $17.34 million domestically, wiping out any sequel plans and hastening the collapse of Cannon Films. And yet, decades later, it occupies a warm place in pop culture memory. People still watch it. People still quote it. People still buy the toys.
Lundgren, to his credit, made precisely this observation in his interview. He pushed back on the idea that a film’s commercial performance at release is its final verdict. He pointed to movies that were massive box office hits and are now forgotten, alongside films that struggled in theatres and became beloved classics 50 years on.
Lundgren also mused on whether Nicholas Galitzine would find himself in the same position he has — still signing swords at fan conventions decades from now. “I suppose… I don’t know. Will Nick be signing swords for 40 years, like I have been? I don’t know. I mean, it’s hard to gauge movies by the box office as well. Sometimes you have a huge box office hit that becomes a classic, or sometimes it makes a lot of money, but nobody cares 20 years later. And there’s also the other one, the other version where it didn’t do that well, but people care a lot, you know, 50 years later.”
Despite the disappointing theatrical run, Amazon MGM has not walked away from the franchise… yet. A sequel is still apparently in development, with director Travis Knight having already nodded toward storylines involving She-Ra and the possible return of Skeletor. Fans got an early taste of what that expanded universe could look like through the Dark Horse tie-in prequel comic that dropped ahead of the film’s release.
None of that is necessarily reassuring for fans who wanted to see He-Man conquer the box office outright, especially after it earned a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 52 on Metacritic. That’s not the worst scores for a franchise in this genre. But the path to a sequel via streaming performance is a road that’s been walked before. And as our full review of the 2026 film made clear (and frankly, surprised us to say), the movie itself is better than its box office suggests.
For now, the most powerful man in the universe has a box office problem. But as the original He-Man himself just reminded everyone: the box office isn’t the final word.
