The Meg, the aquatic Jason Statham epic, has surpassed all expectations making $157 million globally since its August 10th debut (on its budget of $130 million). Focusing on a deep-sea submersible under attack from a 75-foot long Megalodon at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, The Meg has proven to be a great success at the box office. The question is: why?
The reasons for The Meg’s successes are myriad, perhaps owed to a perfect storm of favorable phenomena. With an online fanbase supporting the adaptation of the 20-year-old namesake novel, the advertising campaign doubled down on a film that promises fun rather than seriousness. Warner Bros. embraced the campiness of 80’s/90’s creature thrillers from the start, using Bobby Darin’s ‘Beyond the Sea’ in the initial promo, and the result was a great opening turnout. One other plausible factor in its success, however, is its connection to a very profitable theme in contemporary sci-fi, horror, and superhero films: the rise of an ancient, deadly species--a plot seen in a number of blockbuster films this summer.
Something Ancient This Way Comes
The notion of ancient, deadly species becoming a modern-day threat has at least two main variants (excluding, say, the rise of ancient bacteria): the reemergence of ancient animal species, and the re/emergence of ancient intelligent species.
Formerly Ancient Animals: The Meg and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Both The Meg and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom involve threats posed by the reemergence of ancient animal species, the former involving the discovery of a species thought to be extinct (the Megalodon, the largest shark ever discovered) and the latter involving the scientific de-extinction of a variety of previously extinct dinosaur species. The potential box office gold of this theme was prefigured in a sense by the success of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Raking in $1.28 billion globally, Fallen Kingdom was a juggernaut--yet it benefitted from its place in a highly profitable franchise. The Meg had a fan-beloved novel for its basis but a troubled development history--until recently.
Ancient Intelligent Species
A long-time staple of sci-fi television (e.g. Stargate) and film (more recently, Prometheus—Arrival’s aliens were not threatening but were feared as such), the threats posed by ancient intelligent species have further become box office gold with the rise of superhero films in the MCU and DCEU.
The cosmic and mystical entries of the MCU pose numerous ancient threats that have preceded humanity for long stretches of time. The Thor series introduces the Asgardians, an ancient and powerful race whose power and interactions with humans spawned Norse mythology, along with other powerful species in the Nine Realms: the Frost Giants of Jotunheim, the Dark Elves that once populated Svartalfheim, and Muspelheim and its fire demons. The Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers films introduced many ancient extraterrestrial civilizations and beings, including the Celestials (like Ego) and the Eternals (like Thanos, the lead antagonist of the immensely popular Avengers: Infinity War).
The DCEU also has shown many powerful ancient civilizations posing threats to humanity after a long absence. Recently, Wonder Woman introduced the ancient Olympian gods along with the dangers such beings (namely, Ares) could pose to humanity. The Justice League film highlighted Steppenwolf, an ancient and dangerous New God that returned to threaten the Earth. We'll see this trope soon in the DCEU with Aquaman, building the mythos of a number of aquatic species and civilizations with ancient histories populating the Earth yet largely unknown to humankind.
The ultimate point is that the return of ancient threatening species has proven a great box office draw, and The Meg has benefitted from this tradition. What its own success highlights, however, is that a film in this vein can succeed outside of existing in a major franchise like those of Jurassic Park, the MCU, or DCEU. What ancient beasts will return to threaten humanity in the future?
