Those who missed “Meg 2: The Trench” in theaters and were waiting for a streaming option are in luck. Warner Bros. Discovery will toss the Ben Wheatley-directed shark sequel onto the Max streaming platform on Sept. 29, just shy of two months after the film’s early-August theatrical debut. Thanks to responsible budgeting and a core appeal of watching big-budget shark carnage while major movie stars try to save the day, “The Meg 2: The Trench” somewhat bucked this summer’s trend of underperforming sequels.
Starring Jason Statham and Chinese superstar Wu Jing, “Meg 2: The Trench” earned $390 million in global earnings. That’s below the $530 million global total for the first “The Meg” in 2018. However, that’s more than the worldwide totals for such seemingly surefire summer 2023 hits as “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “The Flash.” Also, considering the sequel only cost a reported $129 million, that was a higher rate of return than the likes of “Elemental,” “Fast X,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part I.”
“Meg 2” earned $82 million domestically and $118 million in China. That compares to $145 million and $153 million for the first film in 2018. The Hollywood/China co-production still pulled one of the bigger COVID-era totals for a Hollywood biggie in China. Yes, it might have been another case of “folks were only curious the first time.” However, the budget was such that even a comparatively modest total was enough to qualify as a hit.
Whether there will be a third “Meg,” the Steve Alten series on which the films are based has seven books, remains to be seen. Those include one prequel, with an eighth novel allegedly on the way.
