Box Office: 'Dark Phoenix' Has Worst X-Men Opening Ever, Beaten by 'Secret Life of Pets 2'
The last "X-Men" film under the 20th Century Fox mantle, "Dark Phoenix," flamed out with a disappointing $33 million, making it the worst debut in the franchise’s 20-year history.
The sequel, starring Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, suffered from franchise fatigue, bad worth of mouth and scathing reviews. Before this, "The Wolverine" had the lowest opening for an "X-Men" film with $53 million in 2013.
It's going to be tough to earn back that $200 million budget, especially with a 22% on Rotten Tomatoes and a"B-" CinemaScore. That's the same grade audiences gave the previous film in the series, "X-Men: Apocalypse," which bowed with $65 million and went on to earn $543 million in ticket sales worldwide.
The entire franchise is scheduled for a reboot. Good luck with that, Disney.
Another new sequel, "The Secret Life of Pets 2,” nabbed first place with an unimpressive $47.11 million, less than half of the $104 million the first film earned its first weekend in 2016.
At least that's better than previous Illumination films "Hop" ($37 million) and "Sing" ($35 million). Audiences gave "Pets 2" the same "A-" CinemaScore as the first film, which went on to earn $368 million at the domestic box office.
Meanwhile, last week's champ, "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" saw a steep decline in sales. In its second weekend, the monster movie took in $15.4 million, a drastic 68% drop from its first weekend in theaters. "King of the Monsters" has earned $78 million in North America so far.
In limited release, the talk show comedy "Late Night," starring Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson, earned $249,654 when it opened in four locations, averaging $62,414 per theater. Kaling wrote the film, which has an 81% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics and 100% from audiences.
Also debuting in select theaters, "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," which boasted the second-best screen average of the weekend. The indie film took in $230,744 from 7 theaters for an average of $32,963 per theater. It won Best Director and a Special Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
Here are the top 10 estimates for June 7-9, 2019
1. "The Secret Life of Pets 2," $47,110,000
2. "Dark Phoenix $33,000,000
3. "Aladdin"(2019), $24,500,000
4. "Godzilla: King of the Monsters, "$15,540,000
5. "Rocketman," $14,000,000
6. "Ma" (2019), $7,820,000
7. "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum," $7,400,000
8. "Avengers: Endgame," $4,800,000
9. "Pokemon Detective Pikachu," $2,980,000
10. "Booksmart," $1,577,259
[Via Variety]