Things went from bad to worse forDark Phoenixover the weekend. Much, much worse. The latestX-Menmovie, which is set to be the final one in this particular version of the franchise, entered its second weekend of release with a pack of newcomers such asMen In Black: InternationalandShaft. That, coupled with bad buzz has led to a disastrous second weekend take at the box office, marking one of the biggest drop-offs in superhero movie history, and certainly the biggest ever in the modern era. The movie could fare even worse than Fox’s malignedFantastic Fourreboot. As such,Dark Phoenixis going to lose a whole bunch of money, likely more than $100 million, for the studio.
Per weekendbox officeestimates,Dark Phoenixdropped a staggering 72.6 percent week-to-week, bringing in just $9 million. On its opening weekend, it made an unimpressive $33 million. Things have gone from bad to cataclysmic. This isn’t a situation where overseas markets are going to save the movie either. As of this writing, it’s grossed just $152.3 million from international markets, making for a $204.1 million global take thus far. With that in mind, it would be a miracle if it managed to cross the $300 million mark by the end of its run.
For whatever it may be worth,Dark Phoenixdidn’t havethebiggest drop ever for a comic book movie, but the ones that did worse are telling. Shaquille O’Neal’sSteel, released in 1997, long before the firstX-Menever even hit theaters, saw a 77 percent week-to-week drop following its $1.7 million debut.Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, which starred former Superman actor Brandon Routh and was released in 2011, saw an 87 percent drop after an opening weekend haul of just $754,000. For those who may not know, that particular movie was based ona run of Italian horror comics.
The fact that one of the most famously bad superhero movies ever made and an obscure horror comic adaptation are the only two that ever fared worse in that category says an awful lot. For his part,director Simon Kinberg has been willing to shoulder the blamefor the movie’s failure. This served as his directorial debut. Though, he has been a longtime writer and producer of theX-Menmovies, dating back toThe Last Stand, which was the first time Fox tried to bring the Phoenix saga to the big screen.
Dark Phoenixwill likely finish its run as the lowest-grossing movie in the series, behind the originalX-Men, which grossed $296 million back in 2000.Disney, since they completed their merger with Fox back in March, will have to take on the heavy losses, which are going to be massive, thanks to extensive reshoots that were needed. This continues an interesting trend of Disney, easily the biggest and most successful studio in Hollywood, also having some of the biggest flops in recent years, such asNutcracker and the Four Realmsin 2018. This news was previously reported by Forbes.
