With the current state of the film industry seemingly heavily reliant on big-budget tentpole films that could possibly spawn major franchises, studios are having to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into projects hoping that they’d become massive billion-dollar hits. And when you sit back swinging for home runs all the time, you’re likely to strike out quite a bit. That’s the situation that Sony finds itself in, as the studio decides what the hell to do with “Masters of the Universe.”
According to THR, after the recent failure of “Men In Black: International,” Sony is a bit gun shy about investing a ton of cash into “Masters of the Universe” in hopes that it could turn into a huge franchise for the studio. So, as a way to mitigate losses and cash out quickly, the report says that Sony is looking to strike a deal with Netflix that would allow the He-Man film the chance to be distributed by the streamer, while the studio gets a fat check upfront to help cover costs and turn a tidy little profit, without the box office risk.
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If this is actually the plan, the live-action “Masters of the Universe” film, which is supposed to star Netflix heartthrob Noah Centineo, could find itself on the streamer alongside the animated TV series based on the ‘80s toyline that is being developed by Kevin Smith and the hit animated series “She-Ra,” which is a spin-off of the He-Man saga. All things considered, this may be seen as a loss for Sony but could be a huge gain for Netflix, who is already knee-deep in ‘Masters’ content.
Sony wouldn’t be the first studio to strike this sort of deal with Netflix. Paramount famously did this exact same thing with “The Cloverfield Paradox” a couple of years ago. While that film was likely going to be a bit of a bomb at the box office (the reviews eventually showed that the movie wasn’t up to par with the previous ‘Cloverfield’ entries), it turned out to be a pretty big media event for Netflix, as the streaming service did a surprise Super Bowl drop of the film.
Obviously, this is all preliminary, but if Sony wants to keep the film on schedule (it has a tentative release date of March 2021), the deal will have to be made shortly.