Much to Fox’s embarrassment, they’re responsible for the one superhero film able to limbo beneath Fantastic Four‘s pathetic low bar. Dark Phoenix has only been out in theaters for five weeks, and in that time it has only grossed $64M domestic and $249M worldwide. The numbers were so low this week it’s probably going to be wiped off the map in a few days. And when it’s gone, Dark Phoenix is likely to be more of a dud than Fantastic Four, and that’s saying something.
It goes like this according to Forbes: Dark Phoenix earned just $439K this week, bringing the domestic total to $64M and global haul to $249M. Let’s say it hits $250M when all is said and done, that’s just 1.25x the film’s $200M budget. Josh Trank’s much-maligned Fantastic Four had a budget of just $120M, yet managed to get $167M worldwide. That equates to 1.39x times the production cost, meaning it was indeed more profitable for Fox than Dark Phoenix when all the numbers are added up. Whomp whomp.
It’s just one final humiliation as we near the end of Fox’s X-Men franchise, and at this point it’s clear a total reboot by Marvel/Disney is what’s best. It also doesn’t bode well for New Mutants, which has never had high prospects and will be unceremoniously dumped into theaters next April. That one is virtually guaranteed to do worse than Dark Phoenix and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is quietly pulled at the last second.
