What a way to go out
The people have spoken and they have said, en masse, ‘We’re grand, thanks’ with regards to yet another grey, dull, ultimately pointless X-Men movie.
Dark Phoenix, which is essentially a remake of The Last Stand is officially a box office bomb, as the weekend numbers roll in.
Box Office Mojo notes that Dark Phoenix has fallen short of expectations by a considerable distance, taking in just $14 million in America on Friday, making it the worst debut ever for an X-Men adventure.
In contrast, The Wolverine, which is not really regarded as a classic, nor did it shatter any notable commercial records, debuted to a $53 million domestic opening weekend in 2013.
The full weekend numbers and international total don’t make for much kinder reading, either – as of Sunday night, Dark Phoenix is estimated to have taken in $33 million at home and $107 million elsewhere for a grand total of $140 million worldwide.
In summary and when factored in against a reported production budget of $200 million; not good at all.
Critically, Dark Phoenix has taken a drubbing, too.
Rotten Tomatoes currently scores the film at 22% based on 232 professional reviews, which is pretty wretched, all things considered.
As it stands, it’s quite the grim farewell for the current cinematic iteration of the X-Men, a series that has run across two decades with varying degrees of quality.
It’s only a matter of time before Marvel fold the characters into the MCU, presumably in the form of a brand new reboot.
Polite request for when that day comes – don’t bother with the Dark Phoenix story again, please. It’s as fresh as Batman’s parents getting killed at this stage.
Still, we’ll always have Logan, eh?
