Dolph Lundgren Gets Brutally Honest About Watching His He-Man Legacy Stumble at the Box Office
Few actors carry the weight of the ‘Masters of the Universe’ legacy quite like Dolph Lundgren, the original He-Man from the 1987 cult classic. Decades after that film became a notorious flop in its own right, Lundgren found himself watching history rhyme as the franchise’s long-awaited 2026 reboot hit theaters with sky-high expectations attached.
The new ‘Masters of the Universe’ film, directed by Travis Knight and starring Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam, arrived in theaters on June 5 carrying a production budget reported between 170 and 200 million dollars. It opened alongside ‘Scary Movie’ and was projected to gross between 30 and 35 million dollars domestically in its opening weekend. The reboot also features Idris Elba, Jared Leto, Camila Mendes, Alison Brie, and Morena Baccarin in a sprawling ensemble built to relaunch the Mattel property as a modern blockbuster franchise.
The results landed well short of those lofty projections. The film debuted at number two with a soft 29.3 million dollars in North America, adding just 25 million dollars from 86 overseas markets for a global start of around 54 million dollars. Demographics played a major role in the stumble, with only 5 percent of opening weekend viewers under the age of 12 and just 6 percent between 13 and 17, while the largest single group skewed toward the 45 to 54 age bracket.
That underwhelming performance is exactly what prompted Lundgren to weigh in. Speaking with ComicBook’s Chris Killian in an interview tied to his new role as a USA Fencing ambassador ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Lundgren admitted he expected far better results for the film he has a cameo in. “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,” he said, before adding that the muted domestic reception still struck him as strange given how much promotional muscle went behind the release.
Lundgren went on to note that the movie seemed to perform better overseas, even if he wasn’t entirely sure what that meant for its overall trajectory. He also reflected on whether Galitzine’s version of He-Man might enjoy the kind of decades-long shelf life that has followed his own portrayal of the character, pointing out that box office numbers don’t always predict how a film will be remembered.
Critically, the new ‘Masters of the Universe’ actually fared reasonably well. On Rotten Tomatoes, 67 percent of 233 critics’ reviews came back positive, with the site’s consensus praising the film’s “self-deprecating script and spirited cast,” while Metacritic landed at a more middling 52 out of 100. Despite the soft theatrical run, which closed out at 102.8 million dollars worldwide against that hefty budget, a sequel is already in development, with director Travis Knight previously hinting at unexplored corners of the mythology, including a potential nod toward She-Ra.
Whether this version of He-Man finds the kind of lasting fandom Lundgren’s own 1987 film eventually earned remains to be seen, especially once it lands on streaming. Do you think ‘Masters of the Universe’ deserves a second life once it hits Prime Video, or is Eternia destined to stay stuck in box office purgatory?
