We’re still two months away from Dark Phoenix, and the prospects are not looking good. Shocker, I know! The troubled X-Men film, likely the last one before Disney/Marvel reboot the entire franchise, has failed to gain traction with even the loyal fan after the disappointing X-Men: Apocalypse, underwhelming and spoilery trailers, and the feeling this particular story has already been done. There’s simply been no buzz for it, and unsurprisingly the box office is projected to be the lowest in the franchise’s history.
Analysts over at Box Office Pro estimate Dark Phoenix‘s opening weekend could range anywhere from $40M-$55M. That’s not atrocious by any means, but if it’s on the low end that would be lower than the 11 previous X-Men movies. The previous low was 2013’s The Wolverine, which opened with $53M on its way to $132M domestic and $414M worldwide. There’s a chance Dark Phoenix does well overall, but with so much negative buzz, and the perception of it being a meaningless movie, that’s probably not going to happen.
In general, I don’t like to post these stories because they become self-fulfilling prophecies, but this is my beloved X-Men and it makes me very sad to see them flame out like this. Looking back at the 19-year franchise through 11 movies and I can honestly say most of it has been pretty great. A few stumbling blocks everybody already knows about, but otherwise the X-Men have been represented very well on the big screen. My hope now is that Marvel gives them a few years break, and then comes up with a reintroduction that blows us all away and brings the mutants back to prominence. They should be bigger than the Avengers, dammit.
Dark Phoenix hits theaters on June 7th.
