Dark Phoenixis getting pulled from over 1,600 theaters this week. It’s about to lose 44% of its screens, which definitely will not help it make some more money in North America. As of this writing, the latestX-Menmovie is stalled at just over $60 million domestically with a grand total of over $232 million globally. It had the worst opening in the franchise’s history at just over $33 million and it is currently the lowest scoring of the franchise on Rotten Tomatoes.
1,667 theaters will pullDark Phoenixthis week due to sluggish ticket sales. The movie was able to pull the tenth spot at thebox officethis past weekend after bringing in $3.5 million, but this is after it fell over 70% in its second weekend. As it stands, it looks like the movie will end up losing quite a bit of money when the dust settles.Dark Phoenixwas supposed to hit theaters in November of last year and then February of this year, but ended up getting pushed back to June.
There are a few who believeDark Phoenixmay have done better had it been released last year, instead of during the summer blockbuster season and well afterAvengers: Endgame. With that being said, the movie has beengetting torched by fans and critics, so the release date may have only helped out just a little bit. The Disney and Fox deal more than likely did not help matters either. Since everybody knew this would be the finalX-Menmovie to feature these actors and characters, they expected more. Director Simon Kinberg took full responsibility for the box office news right after the movie hit theaters.
Long-timeX-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donnerthrew some serious shade at the movie in a now-deleted tweet where she admitted that she had nothing to do with the making ofDark Phoenix. She later said she hoped the movie was good, but as of this writing, she has yet to even see it. The making of the movie was not a smooth process and it ended up becoming big news before it even hit theaters. Reports of extensive rewrites did not help matters at all.
In the end, it looks likeDark Phoenix’s box office failure was a perfect storm of bad things combining. The franchise has gone out with a whimper instead of a bang and it is now up toDisneyand Marvel Studios to reintroduce the characters. Many Marvel fans are excited to see what Kevin Feige decides to do with theX-Menand the other Fox properties, but it’s going to be a little while before we see it happen, which is a good thing. Much like theHellboyreboot, we should seeDark Phoenixon Amazon Prime very soon. TheDark Phoenixbox office news was first reported by theExhibitor Relations Twitteraccount.
