‘Dark Phoenix’ Could Lose $100 Million For Fox and Disney
No X-Men movie had ever opened in theaters with less than $50 million in ticket sales — until Dark Phoenix. The latest X-Men feature severely disappointed fans, but it’s really disappointed the studio that released it, because it wound up making just $33 million in theaters in its opening weekend. (Even X-Men Origins: Wolverine made $373 million worldwide.) To put it in perspective: Dark Phoenix made less than 10 percent of what Avengers: Endgame made in its opening weekend a few weeks ago. At this point, the film is officially the first major box-office bomb in the entire X-Men franchise.
According to Variety, Dark Phoenix — which cost an astonishing $200 million to make before marketing costs — could wind up costing Fox (and by proxy Disney, which now owns the company) a nine-figure sum:
After “Dark Phoenix” became the first “X-Men” entry to flop spectacularly at the box office, the future of the 20-year-old film franchise looks murkier. The superhero adventure misfired with a disastrous $33 million in North America, by far the worst opening for an “X-Men” title. Compounding matters, it cost a hefty $200 million to produce. That doesn’t even take into account the hundreds of millions in global marketing and distribution fees it incurred. It would take a miracle for “Dark Phoenix” to turn a profit. As it stands, box office watchers think that the film could lose $100 million.
We’re staggered by this estimate of a $200 million budget for Dark Phoenix. It simply does not look like a movie on a scale that would require that much money. It doesn’t have the big-name stars you’d expect to demand huge paydays, or the kind of epic world-breaking action sequences that would drive up the price tag. Where did all that money go?
But don’t worry guys. We’re sure that The New Mutants will be such a phenomenal success in theaters when it opens on April 3, 2020 that it will wipe out all this red ink. No problem at all!
Gallery — The Biggest Plot Holes in X-Men Movies: