Walt Disney Studios Motion PicturesX-Men: Dark Phoenix has failed to rise from the box office flames, and has suffered a dismal opening weekend.
The latest instalment in the X-Men franchise has been pulverised by critics, some of whom have described it as being the worst X-Men film to date.
Unfortunately, it also looks set to make some hefty losses, with box office projections looking pretty damn bleak.
20th Century FoxAlthough international markets have allowed Dark Phoenix to rise to the number one spot globally, the film still grossed just $140 million worldwide, as reported by Deadline.
This is a relatively low figure when compared to its predecessors, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Logan and X-Men: Apocalypse which pulled in $262.9 million, $247.4 million and $166.6 million respectively.
The production costs of the movie reported exceeded $350 million, with current projections suggesting Fox is about to take an excruciating hit to the wallet.
I've always said it, fuck rotten tomatoes and the critics. Go judge a movie by yourself. Dark Phoenix was no where near the terrible movie they made it out to be. I actually liked it and I'm a picky watcher. Don't go in there expecting a comic book accurate story.#DarkPhoenix
— Resul Naki Baggio (@BaggioResul) June 8, 2019
Financial experts have advised Deadline how the superhero movie is set to lose $100 million to $120 million after ancillaries, with final global box office earnings currently projected at $300 million to $325 million.
One expert told Deadline:
If it drops like a stone, $285M. Don’t forget it was a holiday in China, and even that was pretty low ($45.7M).
#DarkPhoenix was really good. Don't agree with a lot of the reaction I've seen. Sophie Turner's performance is the best part of the film. Score was insane. CGI was great. Had some pacing issues but knowing the 3rd act was reshot and another 20 mins was cut, makes sense. 🔥
3.5/5 pic.twitter.com/7FllR2pFwi
— Omer K. Farooqi (@OmerKFarooqi) June 9, 2019
These latest dismal predictions have landed after Dark Phoenix took a pretty brutal hammering on Rotten Tomatoes. And some of the reviews are more savage than any villain Jean Grey has had to face.
At the time of writing, the Sophie Turner fronted superhero movie has a wince-inducing critics score of 23 per cent out of 247 reviews, with the following scorcher of a critics consensus:
Dark Phoenix ends an era of the X-Men franchise by taking a second stab at adapting a classic comics arc — with deeply disappointing results.
Brian Tallerico from RogerEbert.com described it as being a ‘joyless, lifeless, boring affair’ while David Sims of The Atlantic dismissed it as ‘chintzy and slapdash’.
#DarkPhoenix literally made me hate the comic book version. I don’t want to see another Phoenix for at least 10 yrs. not even a Phoenix Sun. I don’t even want to see pictures of the city Phoenix. I hate it THAT much.
— Boliver TASK (No More Mutants). #StillWorthy (@UpToTASK) June 9, 2019
Cinemagoers have been a little kinder, with an audience score of 65 per cent. Some super reviewers have suggested Dark Phoenix doesn’t quite deserve the hate it’s getting, praising the ‘superb effects’ and strong character development.
By all means, it’s always best to see a movie before having your opinion skewed by reviews. However, I must say the phrase ‘deeply disappointing’ doesn’t exactly fill me with excitement…
X-Men: Dark Phoenix has been showing in UK cinemas as of June 5, 2019.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.