“Masters of the Universe” is on target to be a gigantic flop despite a massive production budget and huge marketing effort, and now the film’s producer Steve Tisch is under scrutiny again for his reported ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Tisch, who is also co-owner of the New York Giants, denied that he was ever close with Epstein despite frequent email exchanges, including conversations about a 20-year-old Ukrainian woman Epstein was allegedly trying to convince to date the NFL owner. Tisch said that he only had a “brief association” with the convicted sexual predator. “As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with,” he said. Interestingly, the filmmakers didn’t hide the association with Tisch as producers. They did appear to downplay Leto’s involvement despite him being one of the film’s stars. This comes at a time when the NFL is being criticized for remaining quiet on Tisch’s ties to Epstein while Hollywood isn’t coming under the same kind of scrutiny.  Blame is already being placed on one of the movie’s stars, Jared Leto, due to sexual assault allegations. Rumor has it he was banned from promoting the movie at all, which has movie fans questioning why he was selected to play the main villain, Skeletor, in the first place. “Scary Movie” took top spot at the box office over the weekend while “Masters of the Universe” slid into second with a lackluster $29.3 million opening weekend in North America and just $25 million overseas. It’s nowhere near close to recouping the amount spent to make and promote the film. “This is a soft opening for an action adventure with franchise and series potential,” industry expert David A. Gross told Variety of the box office results. “[R]ight now, the only fantasy heroes doing strong business are the biggest and most established superheroes, like Spider-Man, Deadpool, Wolverine, and Superman.” Horror movies continued to dominate, including “Scary Movie” and runaway hits “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” which were both produced on small budgets. Both films have been showcased as examples of how moviegoers are hungry for original stories and not franchise films. “Masters of the Universe” is an adaptation of the popular He-Man franchise featuring the hero Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine), alter ego He-Man, attempting to defeat the evil Skeletor (Leto) on the planet Eternia.