xmen-apocalypse-gallery-02The verdict is in from audiences and X-Men: Apocalypse has found itself garnering an estimated $65 million over its opening weekend, with its total racking up to $76-80 million for the 4-day holiday.

Two years ago, X-Men: Days of Future Past opened in the same slot and grossed $110.5 million. While 80 is nothing to sneeze at, it’s a significant drop for one of Fox’s biggest tentpoles. The Bryan Singer-helmed effort is on track to amass around $170 million domestically, which its sister-franchise, Deadpool, garnered in its first 6 days.

Overseas, the film is in a bit better shape, as it’s already earned $185 million having opened last weekend in some markets.

Its very likely that Apocalypse, which holds a 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, is suffering from some mixed word of mouth and thusly some audience members are staying home. Both Heidi and I saw it, and neither of us had glowing things to say, respectively.

So let’s assume this 80’s-set iteration, in its total domestic run. ends up not even equaling the opening weekends of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($166 million) or Captain America: Civil War ($179 million)? What happens then?

Currently, Singer is in place for another go with the team, set in the 90’s. Given these numbers, perhaps one can assume that audiences are tiring of stories that center around Magneto (whose arc hits a point of absolute exhaustion here) and Singer’s general sensibilities regarding superhero storytelling. This is a series that needs to evolve in order to survive, and while I didn’t love it, it’s clear that viewers warmed more to the modern-day, snappier Deadpool than this angst-ridden throwback. The final cume will tell the tale, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see Fox switch gears, or Singer calling it a day with the franchise he spearheaded.

5 COMMENTS

  1. The biggest complaint I read when the first teaser launched was that all the characters wore black and how that was boring. I agree. Superheroes can look like superheroes and still be cool in a movie.

  2. There are some people in Hollywood getting a bit nervous. BvS was a hit but seriously underperformed. Civil War is a bigger hit but, if you look, is having weaker legs than Deadpool and may end up making less at the box office than Iron Man 3. Now the X franchise opens weak, even coming off of two pretty well regarded films.

    Deadpool proved the super-hero movie is far from dead but there are a lot of big budget comic book flicks in the pipeline that will need to make $300+ million just to break even. If these things start making “only” $200 or $250 million, there will be real financial repercussions:

    Mike

  3. Mbunge says “Civil War is a bigger hit but, if you look, is having weaker legs than Deadpool and may end up making less at the box office than Iron Man 3.”

    And yet, as of this weekend, Civil War became the top grossing film (domestic) of 2016, topping Deadpool’s domestic gross by about 15 million…

    http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2016

    Deadpool’s worldwide gross (after 105 days) is:: $763,177,218

    Civil War’s worldwide gross has already crossed 1 billion dollars.

    where are these ‘weaker legs than Deadpool’ that you are referring to?

  4. “where are these ‘weaker legs than Deadpool’ that you are referring to?”

    You don’t know what “legs” mean in box office terms, do you? It refers to how much box office declines over the run of a film. A movie where box office drops quickly has bad legs and one that keeps selling tickets has good legs.

    Civil War made $46 million more than Deadpool in their first weekends. This past weekend, not counting Memorial Day, It looks like Civil War will make $1.4 million less than Deadpool. Those weaker legs are why it looks like Civil War will wind up making less than Iron Man 3.

    Make no mistake. Civil War is a huge hit. But for something that cost $250 million and was essentially promoted as a third Avengers movie, I’m sure the studio would be even happier if it were doing a teensy bit better. It’s the difference between very good and great.

    And my point is that these films have become so expensive and there are plans for so many of them reaching so far into the future that any sign of softening at the box office is going to be noticed.

    Mike

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