Why He-Man Needs To Muscle His Way To $80 Million

BusinessHollywood & EntertainmentWhy He-Man Needs To Muscle His Way To $80 MillionByCaroline Reid,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Caroline Reid covers the entertainment industryFollow AuthorMay 25, 2026, 08:00am EDT'Masters of the Universe' is aiming to battle to box office success© 2026 Amazon MGM Studios Content Services LLCHe-Man, the burly barbarian from next month's Masters of the Universe movie, has got big boots to fill. The character comes from a popular 1980s line of action figures made by Mattel which was also behind Barbie, the toy range which became a $1.4 billion blockbuster movie in 2023. Masters of the Universe is also the first big action flick from Amazon MGM Studios and no expense has been spared on it.He-Man himself is played by muscle-bound Brit Nicholas Galitzine, whose biggest role so far was in 2020 supernatural horror film The Craft: Legacy. However, he is joined by an array of A Listers including Morena Baccarin, Kristen Wiig, Idris Elba and Jared Leto who plays He-Man's arch-enemy Skeletor.Masters of the Universe is a reboot of the 1987 live action movie with the same name which starred Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and bombed at the box office grossing just $17.3 million. Interest in the rights was reignited in 2007 following the runaway success of Michael Bay's first movie about Transformers, another beloved '80s toy line.After that, the He-Man rights went through a revolving door of studios including Sony, Warner Bros. and Netflix which had significant success producing modern versions of the classic cartoons about the character. According to Variety, Netflix spent nearly $30 million on developing a live action He-Man movie but canceled it in July 2023 citing budget concerns. It left Mattel looking for a new studio and Amazon became its real life white knight.Amazon sensed strong parallels with Marvel's hugely-successful Thor films which put Chris...