The New Mutants had an uphill climb right from the start. Developed while Fox was negotiating a sale to Disney, the final film in the X-Men saga endured bad buzz about rewrites and reshoots. When it was finally released last August, already a summer dead zone, it was in the middle of a raging pandemic. The film only made $45M worldwide, about half of that here in the States.
What’s funny is that the $23M domestic number isn’t really so bad, at least not in COVID-19 times. It actually ranks in the top 25 theatrical releases of the year.
More importantly, The New Mutants has been a hit on PVOD, where it’s listed as the most profitable movie of the week on Vudu and FandangoNOW. This despite reviews that were “meh” more than anything else.
The X-Men spinoff, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Charlie Heaton, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga, and Alice Braga, topped the charts ahead of films such as Mulan, Come Play, and Unhinged .
So what does all of this mean? Well, maybe nothing. It could be that people are so desperate for superhero content that they’re settling on The New Mutants as the only Marvel film to release this year. Or maybe there’s a groundswell of buzz for the film, which I honestly think isn’t as bad as we thought it might be. Disney would be smart to look into this further, either way, and figure out if there’s something to salvage that could possibly work in the MCU.
VUDU Top 10:
- The New Mutants
- Unhinged
- Come Play
- Mulan
- The Informer
- Iron Mask
- Love and Monsters
- Jiu Jitsu
- Chick Fight
- Elf
FandangoNOW’ Top 10
- The New Mutants
- Unhinged
- Come Play
- The Informer
- Mulan
- Iron Mask
- Chick Fight
- Love and Monsters
- Jiu Jitsu
- Dreamland
