Between Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, Marvel Studios is having another banner summer. The same cannot be said for Dark Phoenix, the final movie in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men series. It opened to a franchise low $32.8 million and fell out of the top 10 after only three weekends. For the July 4th weekend, Dark Phoenix added approximately $439,000 to its domestic total to land in 15th place. It’s currently playing on 426 screens, and its stay in theaters will prove to be short. But is Dark Phoenix an even bigger money loser than Josh Trank’s infamous 2015 reboot of the Fantastic Four?
A new report from Forbes suggests that Dark Phoenix is an even larger disaster than Fantastic Four despite making more money. Dark Phoenix‘s cumulative total is $64.6 million domestically, while its worldwide take is $245.7 million. Fantastic Four was only able to pull in $56.1 million domestically, against a worldwide gross of $167.9 million.
If the films were just being judged by their box office performance, than Dark Phoenix would be the clear winner between the two. But the key reason that Dark Phoenix will lose more is because of its budget. With reshoots, Dark Phoenix‘s budget ballooned past the $200 million mark. Although Fantastic Four was also reportedly a difficult production, its budget was only around $120 million. FF lost money, but not nearly as much Dark Phoenix stands to lose.
RELATED: Simon Kinberg Accepts Blame For Dark Phoenix’s Performance
Remember, studios tend to only get half of a film’s box office receipts. Except in China, where the government claims about 75% of the box office. So neither Dark Phoenix nor Fantastic Four covered their budgets. Dark Phoenix‘s costly publicity campaign pushed the film even deeper into the red. It’s unclear how much money the film ultimately bled, but the early estimate is well over $100 million.
Because Disney purchased Fox’s entertainment assets, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men will eventually be relaunched in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel’s going to have its hands full repairing the damage from these box office missteps. But the good news is that it’s not impossible. Far From Home‘s success proves that Spider-Man: Homecoming wasn’t a fluke. Marvel successfully rehabilitated Spidey’s image, and hopefully it can do so again with the X-Men and the FF.
Why do you think Dark Phoenix failed at the box office? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!
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