The Meg 2 box office: How much has it made?

Meg 2: The Trench has swum into cinemas with a tide of cash at the box office – so, here’s how much the sequel has made so far.

Shark movies have been putting butts in theater seats since Steven Spielberg defined the summer blockbuster with Jaws. Whether it’s trashy, frightening, or crap, filmgoers are happy to take a dip; for example, Deep Blue Sea grossed $164 million, The Shallows made $119 million, and Open Water raked in more than $54 million.

Excluding Finding Nemo, The Meg is the most successful flick in the genre, grossing over $530 million worldwide and proving the audience’s appetite for deep sea, ridiculous carnage.

Meg 2: The Trench, the long-awaited sequel, is already off to a great start – so, here’s what it’s made at the box office so far.

The Meg 2 box office

Meg 2: The Trench has made $142 million worldwide.

Despite stiff competition from Oppenheimer and Barbie (which just crossed $1 billion), as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, The Meg 2 managed to collect $30 million in its domestic haul and a further $112 million overseas.

David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research told Variety: “The drop from the first film’s start shows the series is wearing thin. But foreign is where The Meg makes its money, and the overseas openings are strong.”

With a $130 million budget, it still has a few strokes to go before it’ll be considered a success. However, it’s worth bearing in mind how significant its international audience is: in 2018, more than 70% of its worldwide tally came from the foreign box office.

It was co-financed by China Media Capital, and aptly, China is already proving to be its biggest audience, with $53.3 million alone from the country across its opening weekend.

This all considered, The Meg 2 has to contend with even worse reviews than last time: the first movie has a 46% Rotten Tomatoes score, while the sequel is currently sitting at 28%.

In our review, we wrote: “A promising and lively start with horror/eco-thriller leanings gives way to farce and splashy action tedium with a drawn-out finale that eventually gives you a teeny bit of something. It’s just too little waaay too late. Or should that be too much too soon? Ultimately, The Meg 2 just jumped the Sharknado.”

Meg 2: The Trench is in cinemas now. You can check out our other content below:

• Meg 2: The Trench review
• The Meg 2 ending explained
• Is there a Meg 2 post-credits scene?
• The Meg 2 cast and characters
• Why isn’t Li Bingbing in The Meg 2?
• How to watch Meg 2: The Trench
• The Meg 3: Everything we know