The popularity of Fox’s X-Men series was based less on intellectual assets than on the star characters of the animated series and video games that take center stage.
In part, he can blame The New Mutants’ national debut for $7 million on the demanding situations of coronaviruses. The film airs in 62% of the United States (along with Canada) and theaters in states like New York and California are still closed. But even if the film had been released to its full capacity as planned on April 13, 2018, we wouldn’t be talking more than $25 million for the misvalued split. No big stars (in terms of “rears in the seats”) and notable characters, The New Mutants, an YA-dyed horror melodrama that had just spread in the same continuity as Fox’s X-Men films. As the last of the franchise, his relative moaning reminds us that the key to X-Men’s good advertising fortune lies in Hugh Jackman’s turn as Wolverine and the express presence of the X-Men Express Marquee that has seduced several generations of fans.
Bryan Singer’s first X-Men preview, with generic fantasy images, very little action expressed by the characters and a smooth techno melody, was not the first impression enthusiasts expected. But the trailer of the moment, released months later, sealed the deal. Not only did it have a larger and larger diversity (with claws, telepathy, laser-eye explosions, magnetism and shape-shifting), but it was necessarily rooted in a character call. The preview featured six heroes (“Trust a few”) and 4 villains (“Fear The Rest”) appearing with their express powers followed by the 4 villains doing their thing. It wasn’t just an X-Men theoretical film, it was a big-budget sci-fi actor with all your favorite X-Men (Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Rogue, Jean Grey, Xavier, Magneto, Sabretooth, Mystique and Toad) comics, the 1990s animated series and/or the konomi arcade game.
The likes of Gambit, Pyro, Ice Man and Colossus would be left waiting for sequels, however, the diversity of hero and villain characters included almost all of X-Men’s main characters that would attract enthusiasts, no matter where enthusiasts learned of the first. Ip. Seven years after the premiere of the animated series Fox, which in turn brought countless young people to comic book mythology (and the respective famous characters), the first X-Men was preferably programmed to take credit for the original anticipation and nostalgia of the show. as well as video games from the early 1990s. The young people who grew up with X-Men adaptations were now teenagers or young adults. And since the Singer drama, which claimed only $75 million (not even expensive in 2000), garnered solid reviews for its balance between character, existing affairs and the show, was in a position to make history.
Cue an opening weekend of $54 million, the fifth largest so far and the biggest start from Friday to Sunday for a non-sequel to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ($90 million in 2001) and Spider-Man ($114 million in 2002). ). The film a little anticipated, but $157 million nationwide and $299 million internationally on a budget of $75 million were still a big win for Fox and his friends. He also joined Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ($200 million in 1990) as a rare post-Batman eBook that came to light due to the adaptation of the character/comic ebook. And while Fox’s X-Men franchise is not part of the Marvel cinematic universe (then non-existent), its good luck is rooted in a similar ideology. The audience didn’t show up because they liked superheroes, or even because they liked the X-Men concept. They performed for the express cinematic incarnations of these express characters.
When X2: X-Men United opened in May 2003 with $85 million (the fourth-largest Friday-Sunday at the time), it was a transparent example of the audience that was introduced in particular because it enjoyed the first X-Men and was looking to see this cast (Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, etc.) playing these expressive characters. Fans enjoyed these expressive film incarnations, while beginners simply enjoyed it as a “new to me” cinematic story. X2: X-Men United would earn $215 million domestically and $407 million internationally on a budget of $110 million. X-Men: The Last Stand would open three years later with a $102 million boff from Friday to Sunday (the fourth largest at the time) amid a weekend release of $122 million from Friday to Monday. This sowed discord among enthusiasts and was quite preloaded, earning $235 million nationwide. But it grossed $457 million internationally, more than any other comedy movie other than Spider-Man.
This, in a film with primary deaths and important characters who waste their powers, would have been the end in a general world where franchises run for some movies and then retire for the next big thing. However, there have been ten other X-Men films since The Last Stand. Here’s the catch: from 2009 to 2020, the only X-Men films (with one big exception) that appeared were those featuring Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is considered the worst X-Men film of all, however (despite an online leak a month before its release), it still opened with $85 million in May 2009 and ended up earning $180 million domestic dollars and $374 million. globally on a budget of $150 million. This global total was basically similar to Batman Begins ($374 million in 2005), Superman Returns ($391 million in 2006) and Star Trek ($385 million in 2009).
This would lead to the first X-Men film not playing the role of Jackman’s Logan. X-Men: First Class by 1960s is, depending on my mood, my first favorite X-Men film, X2. The spy hug focused on the Cuban missile crisis, focusing on early encounters and initial friendships between a young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender), received smart but very good reviews at the box office. It earned $146 million domestically and $352 million internationally from a budget of $160 million, so the possible reboot was just a prequel to the existing franchise. We had another (most appreciated) spin-off from Wolverine, the provision time The Wolverine won, although it is a melodrama of Hugh Jackman’s solo action with some other mutants, $132 million nationwide (a franchise at the time) still (partly thanks to being X-Men’s first 3-D film) $412 million internationally with a budget of $120 million.
And yes, you can say that First Class (again, it would possibly be my favorite X-Men movie) has taken its toll due to fan discontent with The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but The Wolverine has surpassed $400 million internationally. and, frankly, I would say that the maximum viewer in general had little or no challenge with The Last Stand as a “beloved, a little idea again” popcorn entertainment. Also, if you remember, Batman Begins would possibly have had to deal with the negative consequences of Batman and Robin seven years earlier, however, he still brought $205 million national dollars and $371 million more international Array (no inflation) Batman Returns ($163 million/$266 million), Batman Forever ($184 million/$336 million) million) and Batman and Robin ($108 million/$238 million). In addition, First Class was the first X-Men film to provide a new cast as the previous characters and no appearances for Storm, Cyclops and Jean Grey.
X-Men:First Class’s “next” was X-Men: Days of Future Past through Bryan Singer, an epic era of Fast Five’s “all in the pool” with the cast of First Class (McAvoy, Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicolas Hoult, etc.) and the cast of the previous X-Men trilogy (Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, etc.) anchored with a timed Wolverine that saw Hugh Jackman interact with the timeline of the two. The well-commented Vietnam-era currency would reach $233 million domestically (compared to $110 million on the weekend on Friday and Monday on Memorial Day) and the cooler $7.42 million internationally in 2014, adding $117 million at the time (and still impressive). China. Yes, overseas expansion was partly to blame for the overall total, however, the film was effectively sold as necessarily X-Men four, while providing a happier ending to the original trilogy. It was the largest non-Batman/Spider-Man/Iron Man eBook ever created.
The appeal of Days of Future Past focused on the return of older actors, adding Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in a leading role, unlike some other big-budget X-Men film. Two years later, X-Men: Apocalypse, set in the 1980s and features only an extended (and necessarily mute) cameo by Jackman’s Wolverine, gained miserable reviews and remained flat in North America. Opened in North America with just $78 million over the Friday through Monday week of Memorial Day in 2016, Bryan Singer’s “made” crisis film grossed only $155 million in the country, less than X-Men in 2000. It was stored in a gross amount of $121 million. . China, bringing its time to $543 million. In China’s absence, he would have won as much as The Wolverine and First Class. Indicate Dark Phoenix’s overall failure ($242 million from a $200 million budget) and the abandonment of the New Mutants.
The under-performance of Apocalypse and the total meltdown of Dark Phoenix (which, like Terminator: Dark Fate, dropped hard in China compared to its previous installment) were surrounded by three character+star specific spin-offs that became outright blockbusters. Hugh Jackman’s R-rated Logan, a post-apocalyptic “series finale” for Fox’s X-Men continuity and farewell from Jackson to the role that made him an icon, earned $226 million domestic and $619 million worldwide on a $98 million budget. And then have the R-rated, action-comedy Deadpool movies. Ryan Reynolds reprised his role from X-Men Origins: Wolverine in a meta “that movie doesn’t count” superhero comedy that relished its relative genre-specific transgressions even while telling a pretty conventional origin story. It would earn a stunning $363 million domestic and $763 million worldwide in early 2016 on a $58 million budget. Deadpool 2 would earn $785 million on a $110 million budget in 2018.
What does all this mean? Well, the duration of the dead-time and Deadpool 2 profits, especially compared to the X-Men team videos in 2016, 2019 and 2020, means that other people flocked to Deadpool because they were looking to see Ryan Reynolds in an R-rated Deadpool comedy, not IP connections to Fox’s X-Men cinematic universe. Ditto Logan has generally surpassed all non-Deadpool films in the X-Men series, with the exception of Days of Future Past. They were because it was a finale of Hugh Jackman Wolverine’s series (R classification, grounding, etc.). Meanwhile, after Apocalypse made the mistake of hitting Magneto in the middle (unlike the new/younger cast), Simon Kinberg and his friends bet the long-term X-Men franchise on enthusiasts and the general public. watch a loose remake of X-Men: The Last Stand with a Jean Grey we knew a little bit.
If you look at X-Men: Days of Future Past as not a sequel to First Class, but a continuation of The Last Stand, then First Class performances ($146 million nationally and $353 million worldwide), Apocalypse ($155 million /$543 million) adding $122 million in China) and Dark Phoenix ($65 million/$242 million, adding $59 million in China) make sense. It’s a trilogy that never reached the heights of its predecessors because it didn’t feature Hugh Jackman’s A) Wolverine and B, it didn’t feature the key characters that became popular through Fox Toon and the Konomi video game in the middle of the scene. Especially when inflated (and expanding abroad): the overall narrative is clear: the X-Men franchise (Deadpool is possibly its own distinctive feature) reached its peak popularity when it featured characters that the general public knew, enjoyed and starred in Hugh Jackman. Wolverine in a leading role.
A smaller-scale spin-off like The New Mutants, with cult-level characters in the X-Men world, never had a chance (especially not with a charge of about $80 million). The undeniable concept of an X-Men film has never been more popular than the perception of an X-Men film starring Wolverine, Jean Grey, Storm and Cyclops, which was one of the first classes of “IP characters in the IP world”. The coup that won Days of Future Past created false hopes that the X-Men franchise would return to its original popularity, while it was only backed up through A) very strong reviews, B) a cleverly questionable will that First Class is quite smart and C) the appeal of the original cast and the return of the original director to necessarily cancel a widely watched but not enjoyed past episode (The Last Stand). In retrospect, Fox has (naturally) generational nostalgia for a push for the future. Frankly, so am I.
It can be argued that the total boom in the superhero movies of comedy e-books, which began in 1997 with Spawn and exploded in 2002 with Spider-Man, was fueled in part by the generational nostalgia of the animated series X-Men (and the similar X-Men video). ) that paid off in 2000 with Bryan Singer’s first X-Men film, Array, which featured the main heroes and villains “everyone knows them” in the foreground. And from there, the popularity of the X-Men film franchise basically was fueled through audiences who enjoyed the express cinematic incarnations of those characters (Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, Halle Berry’s Storm, etc.) as opposed to the undeniable generic concept of the X-Men. Film. Looking at the proceeds from Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine films and those that don’t, the combination of actor and character is obviously paramount in the franchise’s initial good fortune and (partially) in pursuit of its existence.
While I think Marvel might have a genuine price by granting acquired rights to certain players on the MCU (Stewart, Berry, etc.), I’m not so concerned because the MCU as a logo is incredibly popular in itself. Simply put, Marvel doesn’t want movie star characters, it turns list B and C characters into A-list movie stars, so the undeniable perception of existing X-Men in the MCU will suffice when Phase 4 becomes Phase Five. But as for Fox’s groundbreaking X-Men series, there’s probably never been any proprietary and character query. The public flocked to X-Men, but in terms of what brought them to theaters, they may well have flocked to Wolverine and the X-Men (which, yes, is the name of a single-season animated series with dynamite). The audience didn’t want “new mutants,” they were just looking for their old favorites.
I’ve studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for nearly 30 years. I have extensively written about all
I studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an analysis in the workplace, for almost 30 years. I have written extensively on all these topics over the more than 11 years. My media for film reviews, workplace reviews and film bias scholarships have included The Huffington Post, Salon and Film Threat. Follow me on @ScottMendelson and like The Ticket Booth on Facebook.