In a surprise announcement from The Hollywood Reporter, it was revealed that Sony Pictures may forgo a theatrical release for their upcoming Masters of the Universe film, instead choosing to sell it to Netflix. This is because they fear the film might not perform strongly at the box office, and so by making a deal with Netflix, the studio will not have to worry about selling enough cinema tickets to recuperate marketing and production costs.
Part of the reason why Sony fears A Masters of the Universe reboot will not perform strongly at the box office comes from the fact that Men in Black: International, which the studio released this summer, ended up losing a significant amount of money. The article from The Hollywood Reporter also states that studio chairman Tom Rothman has started discussing Masters of the Universe with Netflix, so this seems likely to become a reality.
It’s also worth mentioning that although Men in Black: International bombed, 2019 has actually been a pretty good year for Sony Pictures. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood proved to be a huge hit for the studio, as did Spider-Man: Far From Home. The fact that Sony were also able to reach an agreement with Disney over the whole Spider-Man rights fiasco means that the Japanese-owned film studio are not at risk of losing one of their biggest franchises for the time being, so they do not have an immediate need for new franchises.
Although it may have seemed strange a few years ago, the idea of major studios producing films for large budgets and then selling them to Netflix is not unheard of. For instance, Paramount sold The Cloverfield Paradox to Netflix for $50 million instead of releasing it in cinemas, as they also believed that a theatrical release would not be profitable.
Similarly, Warner Bros. decided to forgo a theatrical release for Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle and instead sold the film to Netflix, which made sense, seeing as recent fantasy adventure films released by the Warner Bros., such as Pan and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, had both bombed. So if Sony do end up producing a Masters of the Universe film and then selling it to Netflix for a sum which covers all production costs, they will be following an established trend which has already proven to be successful for other studios, although they will also be setting a new precedent by agreeing upon the Netflix deal before the film enters production.
Either way, Sony have been planning a new Masters of the Universe movie for some time now, with David S. Goyer recently leaving the director’s chair due to creative differences. The last time we saw He-Man’s bare chest in live-action was when he was played by Dolph Lundgren in the critically panned 1987 adaptation from Cannon Films, which, unsurprisingly, was a box office bomb. And seeing as we don’t yet know when Sony’s reboot will enter production, it may be some time before the cult 1980s fantasy cartoon is finally given a worthy film adaptation. So fans will have to make do with Dolph Lundgren’s biceps for the time being.
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