The live-action Masters of the Universe arrived carrying decades of He-Man mythology, toy-box nostalgia and the considerable weight of a long-delayed Hollywood reboot. Travis Knight’s film finally put Nicholas Galitzine’s Prince Adam at the center of Eternia, with Jared Leto as Skeletor. After a difficult theatrical run, however, the movie has discovered an audience in a rather different kingdom: Prime Video.

For a franchise once associated with Saturday-morning cartoons and plastic action figures, Masters of the Universe has suddenly become one of streaming’s biggest performers, and that could materially change its future.

There is something almost perfectly He-Man about the turnaround that Masters of the Universe has gone through since its streaming debut. The movie could not quite conquer the multiplex, but once it reached the living room, the Power Sword suddenly seemed to have found its rightful audience. Nielsen reports that Masters of the Universe generated 1.173 billion minutes of viewing in the United States during the July 20 to July 26 measurement week, enough to take the No. 1 position across all streaming programs.

That figure matters because this was not simply the biggest movie on Prime Video. Masters of the Universe finished ahead of every measured streaming title, including The Big Bang Theory, which crossed the billion-minute mark with 1.122 billion minutes. The movie also had the disadvantage of being a single feature rather than a multi-episode series with hundreds of hours of accumulated content. In other words, the streaming audience did what the theatrical audience did not: it showed up in force.

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That is precisely the kind of result that can make an expensive franchise conversation interesting again.

The theatrical chapter was considerably less triumphant. Masters of the Universe opened in cinemas on June 5, 2026, before arriving on Prime Video on July 22, giving Amazon MGM a remarkably quick transition from theatrical release to streaming. Reports put its worldwide box office at just under $114 million, against a production budget reported at around $170 million.

Yet the first film deliberately leaves a larger mythology standing behind its origin story. Adam returns to Eternia after 15 years, discovers his home under Skeletor’s control and must finally accept the identity that the Sword of Power has been calling him toward. With Teela and Duncan by his side, he becomes He-Man and fights to reclaim Eternia.

That gives a sequel a much cleaner runway. Rather than spending another film introducing Adam, the Power Sword and the basic rules of Eternia, a follow-up could immediately widen the mythology. Skeletor could return with a more ambitious threat, while characters such as Teela, Man-At-Arms and Evil-Lyn could receive deeper arcs. The franchise could also begin exploring the strange corners of Eternia that the first movie had little time to visit.

There is no official sequel announcement yet, so the streaming numbers should not be mistaken for a green light. But Amazon MGM now has something it did not have during the theatrical run: hard evidence that audiences are willing to spend serious time with this version of He-Man. For Masters of the Universe, that may be the most powerful weapon of all.

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Would a streaming turnaround be enough to bring He-Man back for another adventure? Share your thoughts in the comments.