Box office goes to the animals
“The Secret Life of Pets 2” on top.
LOS ANGELES – After nearly 20 years and a dozen films, the current manifestation of X-Men movies is going out with a whimper.
Scorched by poor reviews, “Dark Phoenix” earned a franchise low $33 million from 3,700 North American locations over the weekend for a secondplace finish, according to studio estimates on Sunday. First place went instead to “The Secret Life of Pets 2.”
The sequel, featuring the voices of Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish and Harrison Ford in his first animated role, grossed an estimated $47.1 million in ticket sales.
Although less than half of what the first film opened to in 2016, it’s still a major win for the studio, considering the production budget was around $80 million. Including international grosses, its
global total already is sitting at $97 million.
“It’s a fantastic result,” says Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic theatrical distribution. “We couldn’t be more proud.”
With decidedly less stellar results, “Dark Phoenix” trailed the talking animals. Directed by longtime X-Men scribe Simon Kinberg, it focuses on Jean Grey, played by Sophie Turner, fresh off of her “Game of Thrones” run as Sansa Stark. It also brings back James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence. It’s the de facto conclusion to the modern X-Men movies that started in 2000, and also the first major 20th Century Fox film to be released by Disney following the acquisition.
But the quality wasn’t there and it scored even worse reviews overall than the widely disparaged “X-Men: Apocalypse.” Audiences who showed up seemed to concur with the critics, giving it a deadly B-minus on CinemaScore.
“It’s softer than we hoped,” says Cathleen Taff, Disney’s president of theatrical distribution.
“While the film didn’t open the way we wanted, we think the legacy of the X-Men series is important and it’s more important than how one film opens.”
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore, notes even with the lackluster North American debut and reception, “Dark Phoenix” was No. 1 internationally with $107 million from 53 territories, including China. Globally, it earned $140 million.
“In the international marketplace, it seems like the spectacle and the brand wins out,” Dergarabedian says.
Disney has another winner in its books in “Aladdin,” which coasted to third place in its third weekend with an additional $24.5 million. Globally, it has earned $604.9 million to date.
“Godzilla: King of The Monsters” had a titan-sized second-weekend fall, however, down 67% with $15.5 million.
And the acclaimed Elton John biopic “Rocketman” rounded out the top five with $14 million.