20th Century Fox’s X-Men series drew to a close back in June, the franchise ending with a bomb but no bang as Simon Kinberg’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix was ravaged by critics and suffered the worst opening weekend of any X-Men movie in its near-20 year history.
Things went from bad to worse with the steepest second-weekend drop of any superhero film ever (yes, even including Fantastic Four!), and now Box Office Mojo has reported that Dark Phoenix has officially finished its theatrical run with a global total of just $252.4 million. That’s over $40 million short of 2000’s X-Men, making it the lowest earner of the entire 12-film series.
Given a whopping production budget in excess of $200 million (which included costly and extensive reshoots), Dark Phoenix is among the biggest box office disasters of all time. Disney – which inherited the movie as part of its Fox acquisition has already blamed the film for its disappointing Q3 2019 earnings, and the studio is expected to take a hit of somewhere in the region of $100 million to $120 million in total.
SEE ALSO: X-Men: Dark Phoenix home-entertainment release details and special features revealed
That certainly doesn’t bode well for the theatrical release prospects of The New Mutants, especially as a rumour emerged earlier this week claiming that the Mouse House isn’t impressed at all with the Josh Boone-helmed spinoff or its prospects.
This is the story of one of the X-Men’s most beloved characters, Jean Grey, as she evolves into the iconic DARK PHOENIX. During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all. Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet. The film is the most intense and emotional X-Men movie ever made. It is the culmination of 20 years of X-Men movies, as the family of mutants that we’ve come to know and love must face their most devastating enemy yet — one of their own.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix sees Simon Kinberg directing a cast that includes franchise veterans Michael Fassbender (Magneto), James McAvoy (Professor X), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler) and Evan Peters (Quicksilver) alongside new additions Kota Eberhardt (The Persian Connection) as Selene, Andrew Stehlin (Hacksaw Ridge) as Red Lotus, and Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game) and Lamar Johnson (Kings).
Originally published August 18, 2019. Updated August 19, 2019.
