X-Men: Dark Phoenix Sets New Record They Can’t Be Proud Of
Before the release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix, the film received dozens of rocky reviews. No critic seemed to appreciate what 20th Century Fox and director Simon Kinberg did with the beloved mutants on screen. Then, the movie released to everyone and audiences everywhere weren't happy with the product either. Kinberg takes the blame.
Having worked with the X-Men franchise since 2006, Kinberg was there when the series grossed the most from X-Men: The Last Stand and now he's here when they've seen the least amount of gross. That places him a somewhat unique position. He's also seen the success that Marvel Studios has with their Marvel Cinematic Universe. To an extent, he knew that Dark Phoenix wouldn't be able to compete with Avengers: End Game.
"Coming out 5-6 weeks after what will be the biggest, or second biggest movie in the history of cinema that happens to also be in the genre of superheroes was tough for us," he said.
Still, being the veteran of the team, he didn't use that as an excuse. "But I 'wouldn't blame it on the weekend, like it clearly is a movie that didn't connect," he shared. "That's on me." Taking the fault must also spread across to the new records this X-Men movie stumbled upon after the second weekend of being in theaters.
Opening weekend saw 20th Century Fox bring in $33 million, but then things plummetted. One week later, the film fell 72.6 percent, earning only $9 million. That equates to the most massive second-weekend dropoff for a superhero movie. Knowing it would be the last X-Men movie that Fox worked on thanks to Marvel purchasing the rights, some feel short-changed that they couldn't get a better finale.
