No, M3GAN's Name Isn't Just Highly-Marketable 1337 Speak

"Se7en." "Fant4stic." "Thir13en Ghosts." What do these movies have in common? It's obvious — they're all equally good.

Their inherent quality proves the old Ho11yw00d truth that nothing brings an audience to the box office like a title made out of numbers. It's why the highest-grossing "Fast and the Furious" movies are "2 Fast 2 Furious" and "The F8 of the Furious" (that's true, don't look it up) and why the upcoming "Fast X" will inevitably bomb, having failed to capitalize on the objectively superior "Fas10: Your Seatbelts." When "The Santa Clause 3" failed to make use of "The Santa Claus3" (flop), David Krumholtz left to create his own Bernard the Elf spin-off series, "NUMB3RS" (that's also true, don't look it up).

The latest film to pay tribute to the mathematically inclined box office gods is Gerard Johnstone, Akela Cooper, and James Wan's "M3GAN," an updated killer-doll horror feature that currently looms at an impressive 94% on Rotten Tomatoes (and even made it into Looper's staff-predictions for the best film of 2023). Variety reports that on a budget of just $12 million, "M3GAN" is projected to rake in up to $20 million during its opening weekend alone, likely paving the way for at least one sequel (god willing, James Cameron will abandon that "Avatar" money-pit to focus on his true calling: "M3GAN5"). 

Although the title skillfully uses a "3" to secure its box-office success, M3GAN's name is actually rooted in the lore of the film.

"M3GAN" follows Allison Williams' ("Get Out") Gemma, a professional recreational roboticist that creates high-tech children's toys. M3GAN (Amie Donald, with the voice of Jenna Davis), however, is a creation born partly from Gemma's work and partly through other, more spoiler-y means. After being given custody of her recently orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw), Gemma instructs M3GAN to protect her at all costs. As we all are well aware, absolutely nothing bad has ever happened as a consequence of giving an incomprehensibly sentient A.I. vague commands. Very little room for user error here, surely.

Though it's pronounced "Megan," M3GAN is actually an acronym logically separated as M3.G.An (via Collider). "M3" stands for "Model 3" (or perhaps technically "III," as the "3" in "M3GAN" is represented by three parallel horizontal lines), meaning that M3GAN is the third of her kind. This may mean that there is a M1GAN and/or a M2GAN out there somewhere ("M3GAN5!") or that M3GAN has three generations of software and hardware updates. The "G" stands for "Generative," which likely refers to her ability to generate responses, personality traits, and probably some horribly murderous third thing. "An" is short for "Android," which is another word for a robot with human characteristics. 

All in all, definitely seems like a product worthy of entrusting with your child's safety!