Cannes: Theft Leads China Film Group VP To Bow Out Of Keanu … 
UPDATE: Yahoo Board OKs $1.1B Deal To Acquire Tumblr … 
‘Epic’ Toon Begins $14.5M Overseas Rollout 
Cannes: Sony Classics Wins Stateside Rights To Asghar … 
‘Fast & Furious 6′ Breaks Records In … 
Specialty Box Office: ‘Frances Ha’ Triumphs As … 
‘Saturday Night Live’ Season Finale Posts … 
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ $164.5M Global: Lower … 
Cannes: Backup Media, Memento Bring Heat To Fest Helmer Jim … 
Cannes: Sundance Selects Acquires Dardenne Brothers’ … 
Cannes: Wrekin Hill Acquires U.S. On Gabriele … 
Bill Hader’s ‘SNL’ Stefon Farewell: Video 
Cannes: The Weinstein Co. Books ‘Suite … 
BBC Confirms ‘Doctor Who’ Season 8 
Finally, Cannes Dealing! Radius-TWC Nabs Director’s … 
Hammond On Cannes: Wet Fest’s Official Competition … 
‘Vampire Academy’ Adds ‘Modern … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Shark Tank’ Finale Up, … 
Cannes: Worldview Options Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn … 
UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
‘Mike & Molly’ Creator Mark Roberts To … 
SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM, 3RD UPDATE: So now the 2011 Summer Movie Season enters June after a big month of May. And this week looks like another up week as total movies are looking at a $160M weekend which is more than +24% from last year. The action continues with Marvel/Fox’s X-Men: First Class, a risky reboot directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) with a 1960s vibe and a release date all to itself in 3,641 theaters. It received a “B+” CinemaScore and very positive reviews (92 on Rotten Tomators) and started off by opening with a midnight gross of $3.3M from 1,783 locations. That edged out Marvel title Thor‘s $3.25 million midnight openings in 1,800 locations, but trailed X-Men Origins: Wolverine‘s $5 million midnight start at 2,000 locations. Wolverine‘s $85M opening weekend (from 4,099 locations) also swamped X-Men: First Class‘ debut – Friday’s total North American gross was $54 million for the weekend. This will be the lowest opening of a Marvel-branded movie in a long time — not to mention less than the $60M opening which Hollywood expected. Internationally, X-Men: First Class has already opened in France and Australia but broke no records and will roll out in 75 international territories on over 8,000 screens.
“Given that we are reinventing the X-Men franchise with a critically acclaimed director and top actors who are not really widely known to audiences, we’re hoping to be somewhere around Batman Begins ($48.7M) and X-Men ($54.4M). That seems to be a good target area for us,” said a Fox exec who was right on the money. The studio is hoping this prequel sticks around as moviegoers discover it. With a fresh cast including James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Rose Byrne but no big stars like Hugh Jackman in a signature role like Wolverine, tracking had been slow to build, especially considering how massive The Hangover Part 2 was impacting other movies in the marketplace. But Fox saw steady growth in the core audience, and then growth with females which was surprising because X-Men movies are more typically male. Meanwhile, a word to the wise to the arrogant Vaughn: stop bad-mouthing other directors publicly. Sure, it’s fun to bitchslap Brett Ratner and boast you could have outgrossed his X-Men 3 if only you’d been helming it — but not when your Kick-Ass didn’t do squat its opening weekend.
With it’s see-how-it-all-started angle, X-Men: First Class successfuly avoided the trap of most reboots like Batman and The Hulk and no doubt the upcoming Spider-Man (andSuperman?): repeating the same storyline that’s all-too-familiar by now to moviegoers. Instead, it’s more like J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek by presenting the early backstory. Even so, this First Class (which is not 3D) can’t muster the same money as the original X-Men movie which made $54.5M, or $79M adjusted for ticket price inflation, back in 2000. Fanboys have expressed unhappiness that Wolverine is not part of this prequel which relies instead on the strength of the Professor X and Magneto charcaters as part of the new ensemble. Knowing it would be difficult for this reboot to become a blockbuster, Fox kept sending journalists a lot of early review reaction to show that the movie was being well received. As for marketing, the studio employed anything and everything to sell X-Men: First Class, from joining forces with the multiplayer social network game Mafia Wars in a unique Mutant/Mafia promotion for the global community of 16 million users, to promotional partners as varied as The Army and Farmers Insurance. And major markets across the U.S. saw X’s in the sky over Memorial Day weekend thanks to Fix skywriting.
Here are the Top 10:
1. X Men: First Class (Marvel/Fox) NEW [3,641 Theaters]
Friday $23M, Saturday $22.9M, Weekend $54M
2. The Hangover Part 2 (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,615 Theaters]
Friday $10.5M, Saturday $13.5M, Weekend $33.5M (-61%), Cume $188M
Even if critics hated this just-like-the-original sequel, strong weekend hold pushed pic to near $190M in its first 11 days. As a Warner Bros exec tells me, “Awesome”.
3. Kung Fu Panda 2 3D (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) Week 2 [3,952 Theaters]
Friday $6.2M, Saturday $10.5M, Weekend $25M (-47%), Cume $101M
This kiddie toon is heading to $165+M domestic. Hard to figure out how this kills 3D.
4. Pirates Of The Caribbean 4 3D (Disney) Week 3 [3,966 Theaters]
Friday $5M, Saturday $7.9M, Weekend $19M, Cume $191.2M
The fourquel is heading to $240M domestic and has crossed $700M globally, Disney’s 6th title internationally to cross the $500M mark.
5. Bridesmaids (Universal) Week 4 [2,919 Theaters]
Friday $3.5M, Saturday $5M, Weekend $12.5M, Cume $107.6M
6. Thor (Marvel/Paramount) Week 5 [2,780 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.8M, Weekend $4.2M, Cume $169.1M
7. Fast Five (Universal) Week 6 [2,237 Theaters]
Friday $975K, Saturday $1.4M, Weekend $3.3M, Cume $202.1M
8. Midnight In Paris (Sony Classics) Week 3 [147 Theaters]
Friday $700K, Saturday $1.2M, Weekend $2.8M, Cume $6.8M
9. Something Borrowed (Warner Bros) Week 5 [688 Theaters]
Friday $250K, Saturday $475K, Weekend $1K, Cume $36.8M
10. Jumping The Broom (TriStar/Sony) Week 5 [589 Theaters]
Friday $240K, Saturday $330K, Weekend $800K, Cume $35.8M
In the specialty market, Focus Features’ Beginners opened in 5 theaters for a $38,136 Friday and a per screen average of $7,627. Weekend estimate is $127,120. ”Beginners established a competitive presence in the art house market. Positive reviews and word-of-mouth (bolstered by an extensive screening program) position the film well for a strong Saturday and Sunday,” a Focus exec says.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
Hopefully it will be more! The movie is great and it deserves it!
” … reinventing the X-Men franchise” is an oxymoron.
The Matthew Vaughn-as-director curse continues. ‘Kick Ass’ significantly underperformed, and now this. As for Vaughn being an ‘acclaimed director… huh? Acclaimed by whom? Sure this move has strong reviews, but its opening underperformed even the execrable ‘Wolverine.’
Since when does a $106 million gross off a $28 million budget constitute “significantly underperformed”?
Since when did kick ass make $106 million?
You mean $96 million off a $30 million budget. The movie barely broke even.
People expected a movie with a foul-mouthed, murdering little girl to make $200 million thanks to Comic-Con.
It “significantly underperformed” when the idiots commenting at Deadline began providing their “analysis.” Here everything “significantly underperforms.” There were people here who spent two months trying to convince everyone that “Avatar” had significantly underperformed as well. Honestly.
When you’re talking worldwide gross at a time when it takes 100 mil in costs to distribute a film meaning it lost tens of millions of dollars, and when a film is hyped to the rafters and barely opens. That’s when it is considered underperforming.
Not to mention an R-rated superhero movie that scared the hell out of parent groups, critics, and any major studio giving it the time of day in its development.
Since LGF paid more than that for the film and pumped 40 million dollars in to marketing.
Yes, but “Kick-Ass” found its audience in a major way after it topped the DVD and Blu-ray charts last summer. Too bad the sequel seems to have stalled, but the original — like the similarly underrated “Scott Pilgrim” — is a fantasy classic.
X-men: First Class rocked no doubt. Matthew Vaughn is an awesome director but for him to sh*t talk Brett Ratner when he pulled/chickened out weeks before shooting began on X3 leaving The Ratner to get crucified by all? Kind of a loser move to me. The movie was fine, though not brilliant but maybe Matthew Vaughn should have some “Class” pun intended and lose the attitude.
Agreed. It was Vaughn’s fault that Ratner did X-Men 3 in the first place. Though to be fair, Fox forced the film to be rushed to meet its release date.
“Acclaimed by whom? Sure this move has strong reviews…”
Acclaimed by those who gave it strong reviews?
Fox needs to fire the guy who came up with the “wheelchair” promo; medical equipment doesn’t really bring the sizzle to a promo. The promos were to precious with the material, giving tiny flashes of action instead of a proper kick-ass trailer. Green Lantern and Thor did a better job of showing the powershots upfront.
Plus the X-Men stills have been truly sad; the first shot was of the cast standing with their hands in their pockets, staring at a house. Riveting. Inception and Avatar are great examples of kick-ass promos that were exciting without giving out too many spoilers.
Typical for Fox: fucked-up marketing then under-performing. The campaign didn’t even exist until waaay too late in the game, they released amateurish one-sheets and changed the title treatment at least 3 times. The website didn’t go live until a week before release. They wasted time they could have used to publicize the good reviews from top critics. They didn’t even air the TV spots in HD on HD channels. And why the hell would they take the Fox logo off the TV spots?
Agreed.
Typical response. This has little to do with FOX’s campaign. Why is everyone shocked that this film isn’t equalling the grosses of the past films?
The first X-Men did well because it was the first time the X-Men were on the big screen, it starred known actors and showcased familiar heroes. X-2 and X-3 did well because they were sequels. Wolverine did well because it was Wolverine.
You can’t blame FOX for “bad promotion” when there was literally nothing to promote to the casual moviegoer: No stars, no familiar, “appeal-to-the-masses” recognizable heroes (Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, etc), and a historical concept that really only appeals to fans and those who can appreciate it.
I am by no means saying this film is bad–it’s fantastic–but it’s not *primarily* designed for instant mass appeal. A $58-60 mil ceiling is neither shocking or even unexpected. In fact, I think it’s actually very good for a film like this! I look forward to a sequel now that this has been established.
Thoughtful response.
Fox would be foolish not to greenlight a sequel, if only because Fassbender will be a big star by then (kind of like Craig after Casino Royale).
To me as a big X-men fan, when I was kid, this movie just seems to be revisionist history of events that didn’t occur in the vast majority of the comic series… until perhaps the last 5 to 7 years, when everything with an “X” in it’s title was bankrupt creatively.
The mistake was set in the first trilogy… no Hellfire Club & Dark Phoenix Saga, no Imperial Guard, no Sentinels, no Days of Future Past, no New Mutants… they have all the source material possible for three films, and yet what is delivered doesn’t seem compelling… and without Wolverine, Storm or Cyclops then what’s the draw on this film Xavier as a youth? And Magneto, again? Please! Just like HEROES on NBC beating a dead horse with Sylar. There ARE other X-men Villains… they could even used Breakworld from Joss Whedon’s run… Or Xavier’s twin sister…
Seems like the Star Wars prequels…
Yes, you can blame FOX for mismarketing the film. I mean, as you said, there’s really not too much to do here and they managed to screw up what little that they could do every step of the way. I mean, if the marketing had been blame or unaggressive, and it simply didn’t punch through the public’s consciousness, that’s one thing…
But it shouldn’t be too much to ask to have the marketing not make you actively dislike a movie. They screwed it up at least half a dozen times before getting it right or inoffensive even once, and to have the otherwise guaranteed audience pretty sure that it was a nightmare up until a month before the pic opens is way, way too late.
It makes me angry that they actively destroyed confidence in a film that is otherwise pretty decent.
Agreed man! BATMAN BEGINS & INCREDIBLE HULK also made less money than the other films. And also FIRST CLASS’s budget is minor compared to WOLVERINE and X MEN 3 (220 mil). And it’s and amazing movie by the way.
I think that a lot of this has to do with Fox poorly promoting the film. Most people that I know didn’t even know that an X-Men film came out! I also think that people have become burned out by the X-Men franchise due to the last two installments being rather piss poor. Sure the lack of any major starts and characters didn’t help, but I think that other factors were far more detrimental to the opening of First Class.
The fact that this film will make $58 million opening weekend has *nothing * to do with FOX’ campaign. There are no stars, no familiar heroes and a historical setting that the average ticket buyer isn’t excited by. The result is a great film for fans, but only a “hey that could be cool to see” film for everyone else.
There’s a reason why the “Avengers” film in the works isn’t featuring Ant-Man, Wasp and Captain Britain. lol
Captain Britain? Never was in the original Avengers… you must mean Captain America, and Avengers is about reviving Captain America from WW2
The fact that you don’t know that Kevin Bacon, ie, a “recognizable star,” is in the film jas everything to do with FOX’s poor campaign.
…which is why you need good marketing and a strong difinitive trailer. Disney made the same mistake with Scocerer’s (or was it Magicians?) Apprentice. X-Mens vague, murky disjointed marketing was a disaster.
Steve What have you ever done or marketed ?
Your negative comments show your frustration at being such a loser !
58mil such a failure on a non holiday weekend..new concept for franchise
Sad people like you are allowed to comment
Who is really the sad one here? the guy who uses evidence and some analysis to come to a conclusion, or the guy who calls him a loser for doing so?
I know. The one time that Tom Rothman doesn’t interfere creatively with comic book material and people ignore it. Hopefully word of mouth will keep it in a little longer.
Agreed 2: First Class
Matthew Vaughn is brilliant. Ever since Layer Cake…
I understand this is a new spin in a prequel form but what was Fox projecting? This seems terribly low. (hated Ratner’s “Last Stand” btw but loved X2).
nikki – you are absolutely right. Vaughn should keep his mouth shut. He quit X3 and by multiple accounts went $40m+ over budget on this movie and had to do 8 weeks of re-shooting. This movie is only ok. Got 72% on rottentomatoes by real reviewers (not Vaughn plants). He is one of those arrogant self-promoters who thinks publicity is more important than the work. Bryan Singer should have directed this one (and X3 for that matter). He is the only one who gets this material.
Vaughn is a little too like his buddy Mark Millar, as far as shooting his mouth off too much, and needlessly creating enemies. Both of them could do with having the arrogance knocked out of them.
You might want to check Rotten Tomatoes again: right now, it has an 87-percent rating from “real reviewers.” It’s a pretty terrific picture by a terrific (if possibly off-putting in his public pronouncements) director.
Your an idiot, brilliant.
All the real reviewers are the ones that agree with only your opinion, right?
Classic douch.
Brilliant (previous poster), you’re an idiot.
Hmm…disappointing? Opening weekends for the last 3 X-films:
Xmen 2 : $85 mil
Xmen 3 : $102 mil
Wolverine : $85 mil
Uh, yes. Disappointing.
Considering the opening weekends of the previous films (and the positive reviews), this is still lower than I expected.
I wonder if it’s the absence of A-list actors, or the sour taste of X3 and Wolverine.
But I’m stoked to see it
Actually, you’re half right: Not only is it the lack of name actors, but it’s also the *lack* of Wolverine -or any known hero commodity. The average viewer doesn’t want their perception of an existing property changed *too much*… in other words, they’d be more attracted to an X-Men film with Wolvie and Xavier in a wheelchair than this. The only way to counteract the unfamiliar heroes is to balance it with A-List casting, and this didn’t have that. In the end, you have a great movie that appeals to *fans* – but only MILDLY appeals to average people.
Possibly, which is sad, because Michael Fassbender is a much better actor than Hugh Jackman could ever be, but that’s just my opinion.
Please, someone tell me if the “best superhero movie since Dark Knight” comment is for real….and i’ll prepare of a hospital stay if it is.
It’s not. You can come out of the hospital. “Iron Man” was much better.
Iron Man came out two months before the Dark Knight.
HA
It’s not quite that level (for a number of reasons), but Michael Fassbender was great in it. For a film rushed into production, it ranks in the upper tier of superhero movies in general. I thought McAvoy had great chemistry with Fassbender, but I just couldn’t buy McAvoy as a younger Professor X.
It’s a shame January Jones phoned in her performance. I expected better from a “Mad Men” actor.
It’s not like January Jones sets the screen on fire in MadMen, either.
McAvoy doesn’t have the type of charisma to ever develop into the type of star that opens movies. It doesn’t make him worthless. I like him a lot. He is talented and good looking, and all of his indie films will over-perform at the box office. But the top of the A-list is a different animal all together. There is a magic to those select few. You can smell it like ozone, and sometimes you can perceive it before an actor arrives on the A-list. Conversely, sometimes you can tell when it will never happen, even though there is nothing wrong with an actor.
I think Jones was by far the weakest link in the film.
Very, very, surprised with how good this movie was. Iron Man may have been better, but I don’t see any other comic book movies topping this one for a while. The Green Lantern trailers look like a spoof that should be opening the MTV awards.
Yeah. I kept hearing that for the past couple of days. Dark Knight is incomparable to any film ever. It’s truly in a class of its own, and I don’t think it’s fair to compare First Class to it. Don’t get me wrong, I loved X-Men:First Class. I went to so far as to see it at midnight. That is the first time I’ve ever seen a midnight screening. This film is in a league of its own as far as comic book films/franchises are concerned….but it is nowhere in the same league as Nolan’s Batman.
They need to stop playing games with these comparisons.
Well it is kind of like saying your the smartest village idiot, its a stupid statement for actually suggesting that being better than the superhero movies that have come after Dark Knight is an accomplishment.
“Watchmen”…
Movie is F-ING AWESOME! That is all.
agreed. opening weekend is not going to matter when next week’s lack of a drop-off is going to be this film’s real story. incredibly positive word of mouth will give it legs
This is a disastrous opening. Hangover II may actually have a chance at retaining the top spot!
No it isn’t and no it doesn’t. Stop pretending to know what you are talking about.
Bite your tongue!
comments like this make me laugh..
That is not happening.
Even though I’d like to see it do better, nearly $60M is pretty respectable, especially for the 5th in the series, and following 2 lackluster films, as well as going up against the 3rd week of Pirates and the 2nd weeks of The Hangover and Kung Fu Panda.
Plus, the budget was only $120M, so they’re halfway there.And that’s not even counting the foreign totals.
Good work.
In general, studios keep approximately 55% of the theatrical gross. So no, they’re not halfway there yet.
No studios keep 80 to 90% of opening weekend. So yes, they’re pretty close to halfway there.
Sorry, dude. It is you who doesn’t know what you’re talking about. The studios used to get 80-90% the opening weekend for certain films that were in high demand but that changed a number of years ago. Now they make deals up front for the entire run and they are usually about 55%. Some films like Avatar get better deals and others get lesser deals. But most films including something like X-Men get about 55%. And the deals overseas are often even less.
Stay up on what’s happening if you want to make comments.
Fast 5 did $85m in its non-holiday, 3-day weekend. That’s the right comparison.
I think this is Superhero overdose at box office. Four major Superhero movies in one season is way too much. And plus movies based on cartoons and less known comics will cause really under par average for sci-fi pictures.
I don’t know, its far from an unprecedented number of superhero flicks. it seems to me that the box office survived the summer of 2008 where Iron Man, Hellboy 2, Hancock, The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight all were released.
I think you’ve hit upon at least one reason why the 1st weekend box office for this film is luke-warm (though it’s all a moot point if the film has legs). There has been a glut of comic book superhero films getting made, and I’m not sure that even if they are all AAA-quality films that they’re all going to find an audience. If that’s true, it may impact GREEN LANTERN and CAPTAIN AMERICA harder than X-MEN:FIRST CLASS.
I want to see this film, just as I did with THOR, but the problem is that by the time Friday’s check is cashed and bills are paid and 50 dollars spent on filling up a fuel-efficient car at $4 a gallon, there’s just no money left for the movies.
It could also be that we’re in a cycle where people are wanting a laugh (BRIDESMAIDS, HANGOVER II) or family films (PANDA 2, CARS 2), and not angst-ridden super heroes debating morality and justice.
Having said all that, I think the superhero genre is going to be just fine. X-MEN, at this point, is a known quantity. THOR, GREEN LANTERN, and CAPTAIN AMERICA have never been on the big screen before, and because of that, coupled with interest, I think they’ll all be sizable hits.
It’s only one movie in a dead franchise, so it’s a bit soon to say that superhero fatigue is setting in. A better indicator will be ‘The Green Lantern’ which looks to be the worst of the bunch.
Second that… GL looks terrible, Ryan Reynolds is the wrong choice in the lead (should have gotten Fassbender for GL), and the effects don’t even look that believable…
Yeah i think “superhero” fatigue is a myth still. And it won’t happen with Green Lantern either. Green Lantern will easily outdo first class
Looks like First Class is going to do decent numbers but nothing of the X2 or Wolverine variety. Fox better pray it bucks the X-Film trend and develops some long legs.
Wow, a huge flop!
LOL… how are people calling this a flop? The film had no stars and unfamiliar characters. I guess I must be the only person who never expected it to crack $60, and that’s a good showing for a prequel of this nature!
$200 million domestic total goes right out the window. $150 million not even guaranteed at this point now. Disappointing and, considering the great reviews, quite surprising.
Who was projecting a $200 million domestic total?
$200 million is not out of the question just yet. As mentioned in the article Batman Begins had a $48 million opening and went on to make $205 million domestic box office. If 1st Class gets good word of mouth from viewers, and it is so far, then it should still get close. I think around $180 million should be a good number for this one.
And by the way. It is the best X-Men movie yet and the best comic movie since the 1st Iron-Man in my opinion.
Very true, but Batman Begins had a $24 million head start by opening on a Wednesday. That means that by the end of its first weekend, it had earned $73 million, and so made $132 million after its first weekend was behind it. That would put you right on target at about $180 million. And that’s only IF First Class can actually get that far. It would have to have legs in the area of 3.5, which is extremely rare for a fanboy film in today’s market.
Also remember that Batman Begins had very little competition as summer 2005 was a famously bad summer for movies (aside from War of the Worlds, the only action flicks to compete with Batman Begins after it opened were Fantastic Four, The Island and Stealth). Only one other film in the entire month of June was able to open to more than $20 million (Mr. & Mrs. Smith).
And while I think that Dark Knight was better, I have seen First Class I do agree that it is the best comic book movie since summer 2008.
That’s kinda weak, next to the Hangover 2 and Wolverine. Even Thor had a bigger opening weekend than that.
I saw X-Men: First Class (AKA seX-Men) last night and really enjoyed it.
Matthew Vaughn has a done great job here and the setting the film in the 60′s works really well.
James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender work really well together as
Xavier and Magneto.
Boy Oh Boy both Jennifer Lawrence and January Jones sizzled onscreen and kept the blood rushing for all the males in the audience.
Kevin Bacon also did a great job especially with his German accent.
The film has its moments, for sure, but I doubt its going to be the hoped-for gamesaver. More a brake on the downward slide. Kevin Bacon’s German accent is actually terrible, but he’s not alone. Did the dailog coach have keine Ahnung here?
your analysis is dead on. The new X-men has a lot of newer actors that most of the audience would be unfamiliar with. If you look at the first X-men, it was a pretty decent list of known actors like Patrick Stewart and Halle Berry with maybe Hugh Jackman being one of the fresher faces.
I wonder if X-men is actually benefiting a little from the negative reviews for The Hangover sequel. I see a lot of chatter from fans of the first film saying they wasted their money on the second.
Actors in first X-Men, Hugh Jackman hadn’t really done anything before first X-Men, other than West End theater, Hallie Barry was almost a has been, as she didn’t win her Oscar until a year and a half later. It was also released a year and a half before Lord of the Rings, so that rules out the Ian McKellan factor. Oh, and since it’s also in the lineup this week… the actors in the Hangover were relatively unknown when the first came out, so what’s your point?
my point…
that james mcavoy, michael fassbender, and january jones are far far far less known than some of the major actors in the previous X-men movies. If it makes less money than previous X-men movies, it would not be surprising to me.
Even by the second X-men movie Hugh Jackman was a household name. Everybody knew who the guy was and lined up for his Wolverine movie.
Saw it at a fairly crowded matinee this afternoon. Major improvement over Wolverine and X-Men 3. Crowd seemed to like it. Getting anywhere close to the last four openings ought to be considered a major achievement considering Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has been the main draw. This will get solid word of mouth and do fine because it’s passable entertainment but studio execs need to start asking themselves if the bloom is off the rose on comic book movies in general. We’ve still got a whole nother summer of big time comic product with the new Batman and the Avengers. After that, it gets murky.
With a weekend like this, how long do you think it is before the marketing campaign gets built around the fact that Hugh Jackman is in the movie?
I can see him appearing in the TV spots, just as they did with Schwarzenegger in Terminator Salvation.
I’ve been reading a lot of reviews, and about a quarter of the them kind of infer that it’s doing less at the box office because it’s without Wolverine. That’s PARTLY true, but frankly, Wolverine is part of the problem as well. Too much of anything over everything else (especcially established mythology) is not a good thing.
I described it to my brother this way. Take a classic Western Like “The Magnificent 7″ with Yul Bryner, Steve Mcqueen, Charles Bronson….James Coburn and the remaining cast. Then suddenly, because Clint Eastwood [the only man who in his prime could have done a FAR SUPERIOUR Wolverine to Jackman's] is available, the studio decides to call the Movie “The Magnificent 8″. And then on top of it, because he’s popular in such movies as (“The Good,Bad, & the Ugly”, “High Plains Drifter”, and “For a Few Dollars More” – different era I know, but it’s just an example), that they then decide to not only add him in as the 8th hired gun, but decided to make the movie 60 to 70% about him. Forget everyone else around him is the attitude. Now, We all know Wolverine is the most popular, but he is not the be all end all of the X Men Universe. And there are other X Men that are a lot closer to him in popularity than the stupid studios think. This is the BIG IDIOTIC MISTAKE that FOX has made from day one. But if you make the other characters play second fiddle to Wolverine then they’ll be 2nd fiddle.
And what happens when the other characters are shoved aside? Unhappy Fans of the franchise might stick around a while, but as their favorite characters keep getting less and less development and spot light (or more accurately “Getting the Shaft”), the more they start avoiding the franchise. Personally, I didn’t care that the first X Men Movie centered around Wolverine because it worked well within the story. And all the characters were pretty much still respected.
My favorite character in the X Men is Cyclops, and I will say that the integrity of the character was maintined well in X1…..well despite not being in the movie as much as I would have liked. In fact, the first movie was the only movie where he was pretty cool from beginning to end. After that, ehhhhh…except for a one or two parts in X2….he pretty much sucked, and became Wolverine’s flunky. So much so that they had to somewhat get rid of him so Wolverine could take the Romantic Spotlight with Jean in the 2nd & 3rd X-Men movies. X-Men 2 was the last DVD of the franchise that I bought. And the Funny thing is that I thought I liked it at the time, but have only watched it maybe once or twice. Always fast forwarding through certain parts.
When I went to see Thor (AWESOME MOVIE!)I spoke to some fans who were so sick of Fox disrespecting them that they said they’d probably buy tickets for a movie that is well deserving (meaning one they’ve seen several times), and then sneak over to watch this latest X-Men installment. When I mentioned how that’s not really fair (can’t believe I said this where FOX is concerned), they said something I couldn’t argue with. In fact it’s kind of stuck in my mind. “The disrespect goes both ways…..just like our loyalty does”.
Personally, I’ll stick to just avoiding the movie….just like I did for X3. Although, I can’t say the same about “Wolverine Origins” because it got leaked online, and I didn’t have to pay one dime. I want to say that I felt a little guilty, but I honestly can’t.
Bottom line for me is that if FOX respects the X Men characters and the fans (while still trying to reasonably appeal to the masses who aren’t really X Men fans), then I hope the film does well. If not, then I hope it tanks like a piece of over used Ademantium.
*Please excuse any mispellings…it’s late and I don’t feel like proof reading.
Just watched X-men: 1st Class, and considering all the negative buzz and build up (Vaughn’s push to meet deadlines, the cringe-worthy photos, the no-big-name cast, etc.), it exceeded our expectations. Fassbender and McAvoy really stole the show.
It was near-perfectly paced (maybe a little dense and fast for the non-fan). It wasn’t campy/funny, but the few funny parts were hilarious, including the best cameo since Bill Murray in Zombieland. Biggest complaint was that there were a few contrived/convenient moments in the movie (similar to the Emperor saying “Hmmm, I shall call you Darth Vader!”). Also, at times the movie almost took itself too seriously.
Seems like they’re just setting the table with this one and banking on Jen Lawrence, Fassbender, McAvoy, January Jones et al. becoming big/bigger stars by the sequel (especially Lawrence, who’ll have at least one Hunger Games pic under her belt by then).
I wouldn’t be surprised if this out-grosses the Wolverine pic — which would have seemed like a long-shot not too long ago.
Why did they have Mystique repeat the dumb line “Mutant and proud” twice? It was so heavy-handed. Singer handled the gay allegory much more deftly.
Decent opening considering it has to overcome the massive amount of stink left over by the two previous horrendous films. I expect this one will do better in the long term due to the strong word of mouth, same that happened with Batman Begins. And then of course all the “professionals” posting here calling it a bomb will have NOTHING to say as usual. Please STFU if you have NO idea what you are talking about. You do not look smart. At all.
I don’t believe in passing judgement on a film’s performance until after the second weekend. That’s the one that will tell us for sure whether X-Men is a bomb or just a slow starter overcoming franchise stigma.
Looking at next weekend, a drop of 55% or more means it’ll be lucky to reach $150 million (BOMB). A drop of 45% or less means it has a shot at getting close to $200 million (BLOCKBUSTER).
Opening weekend means little in determining final gross. Let’s just wait and see what happens next weekend. Then the “professionals” can have their say lol.
please, more failures like this. Green Lantern is going to bomb. Captain America is going to bomb. maybe then the grown ups can have their movie theaters back
grown up have their theaters now,
go see that horrible looking julia roberts and Tom hanks movie that’s coming out.
egggghhhhh, that looks horrible
Matthew Vaughn will be feeling sick as a parrot today. He showed no “class” (pun intended) at all when he bad mouthed other summer releases, and now it looks like his X Men reboot will be one of the lowest grossing summer blockbusters. Karma is a bitch.
Oh, and also, they pretty much NEEDED to reboot the film franchise in this way.
Considering the X-3 Brett Ratner s&^$-fest and the terrible Wolverine pic, X-Men: First-Class did exactly what it needed to do by infusing fresh blood into the franchise and washing the **** taste out of the mouth.
The X-Men stories are among the most popular (and valuable to studios), and they really needed a makeover. I’m glad that they focused on quality and recruited young, talented actors before they peaked (and Vaughn).
They could have very easily just gone through the motions and slopped together a half-assed movie onto the screen just to retain rights, and it probably would have done alright internationally (with the 2nd and 3rd pics just doomed). Instead, they probably realized that the money-making potential of this new trilogy can only be fulfilled by starting with a quality origin pic, which sets the bar and expectations for the rest of the series.
Nikki Finke
“but not when your Kick-Ass didn’t do squat its opening weekend.”
Since when is a 20M OW of a 30M-film considered ‘squat’ ?
I think Nikki meant relative to expectations. Yes, Kick-Ass made $20 million opening weekend, $48 million domestic total and $96 million worldwide, but all of those numbers are about half of what was expected of it. It had very good reviews and was expected to do much, much better.
Hangover 2: PIECE OF SH*t MOVIE. This X-Men movie: SPECTACULAR. It honestly hurts my feelings to know that Fox screwed up the marketing on this one. What executive screwed this up? The movie was brilliant from start to finish. SO much fun, so entertaining. Shame on Fox if they screwed up the marketing so terribly that the movie doesn’t do well.
The comic book fad is coming to an end. People are tired of the same old schtick.
After 9 years I think it qualifies are more than a “fad”. Even if it starts “coming to an end” this year, it’s definitely been a comic book era for Hollywood, at the least.
Thor’s 166 million domestic sorta laughs at this comment. People are tired of X-Men is more like it.
The comic book movie theme is not a fad. That’s like saying the crappy romantic comedies are a fad and yet they’re still here.
They are here to stay. Get used to it.