Ever since the start of the new millennium, there have been very few constants in pop culture other than X-Men. Music fads have come and gone. Popular film franchises have flamed out and been rebooted (e.g., we're already on our third Spider-Man). Television shows, both network and cable, are virtually unrecognizable from what they used to look like (unless they're on CBS). YouTube stars now outpace film and TV stars in the hearts and minds of modern kids. But the X-Men films have stuck with us throughout it all, delivering new installments every 2-3 years. We haven't always liked these X-Men movies, but we know that there's always a new one - hopefully a better one - just around the corner.
For example, everyone seems pretty down on Apocalypse right now, and understandably so. It's a perfectly diverting action movie, but it's also overstuffed and lacking in new ideas, which can be seen in some of the performances (Jennifer Lawrence, in particular, seems like she couldn't care less any more). As a result, while Apocalypse took the Memorial Day box office crown it did so in completely unremarkable fashion, coming in on the absolute low end of expectations with $65.7m for the traditional weekend, $79.8m for the 4-day holiday. Before the weekend, analysts had it finishing anywhere between $80m and $100m.
As per usual with just about any big budget film these days, the studio prefers to focus on the bigger picture, namely how well Apocalypse is doing overseas."We're very happy with this result as we introduce new characters in the X-Men universe," said Fox domestic distribution chief Chris Aronson. "And for us to be at this number globally already ($265m after 10 days) means we're in good shape."
Yet here's the odd thing about the X-Men franchise from a box office standpoint: it doesn't seem to matter whether we like these movies or not. They all post acceptable opening weekends, sometimes even record-breaking opening weekends, but after that they disappear faster than Quicksilver listening to a period-specific pop song.
X-Men (2000)- RottenTomatoes: 86%
- Opening Weekend: $85m
- Records: Fourth-biggest Fri-Sun debut in history (behind Spider-Man and the first two Harry Potter films)
- Second-Weekend Drop: 53%
- Final Domestic Gross: $215m
- Weekend-to-final multiplier: 2.5x
- Industry Average That Year: 4.34x
- RottenTomatoes: 58%
- Opening Weekend: $102m (Fri-Sun), $122m (Fri-Mon Memorial Day)
- Records: Second-biggest single day ($45m Friday) behind Revenge of the Sith's $50m debut, fifth biggest four-day total of all time
- Second-Weekend Drop: 66%
- Final Domestic Gross: $234m
- Weekend-to-final multiplier: 2.3x
- Industry Average That Year: 4.24x
After the fanboys and girls had their fill in those first 4 days, The Last Stand took an epic box office plunge, to the point that it holds the dubious distinction of having the lowest domestic gross ($234m) among any film to open at or above $100m. The next closest is 2014's Transformers: Age of Extinction at $245m.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)History repeated itself with First Class. To some, it didn't matter that critics considered it the franchise's best movie, or perhaps second best behind X2. There was no way they were paying money to see another X-Men movie, not after The Last Stand and Origins. Fool us once, fool us twice, but not three times! As the former Professor Xavier said in another franchise, "The line must be drawn here!"
Except, of course, the word-of-mouth spread fairly quickly, and after a mediocre opening First Class managed to post the second best multiplier in franchise history. That being said, it still trailed far behind the industry average (which was 4.38x in 2011, at least among the top 10 films of the year), and triggered an all-star tream-up sequel to restore the franchise to its former heights.
The Wolverine (2013)- RottenTomatoes: 83%
- Opening Weekend: $132m
- Records: Biggest All-Time Opening (R-Rated, President's Day, February, Winter)
- Second-Weekend Drop: 57%
- Final Domestic Gross: $362m
- Weekend-to-final multiplier: 2.74x
Those are but some of the reasons it shouldn't really be lumped in with the other X-Men movies, yet even when you do that Deadpool maintains the pattern of being at least moderately front-loaded. However, it's 2.71x multiplier is actually amazingly impressive considering its R-rating and non-traditional release period.
What have we learned from all of this? That X-Men movies are as reliable as the sunset, in the sense that there's always another one on the way, but they've consistently played to ever-faithful hardcore fans and struggled to break through to wider audiences beyond that. It doesn't even seem to significantly matter if they are fantastic, kinda good or seriously disappointing, although the latter ones have been punished accordingly. This suggests that Fox's recent push toward creating live-action X-Men TV shows is a wise move. Arguably, the original X-Men movies were fueled by kids like me who grew up on X-Men: The Animated Series from 1993 to 1997. What reason (beyond the movies) have kids been given to care about the X-Men ever since the last animated series, Wolverine and the X-Men, disappeared after one season in 2009?