Our source has provided us with Disney’s expectations for X-Men: Dark Phoenix’s domestic box office haul on opening weekend and for its entire run in theaters.
Our source tells us Disney expects the latest X-Men film, X-Men: Dark Phoenix from director Simon Kinberg, to bring in $45 million on opening weekend. Disney expects the film to make $100 million in its entire domestic box office run.
The opening weekend expectation is in line with what Box Office Pro predicted the film would bring in back in April. They indicated the film would have an opening weekend between $40 and $55 million.
A $45 million opening weekend would be a series low for the X-Men franchise. The worst opening weekend in the X-Men franchise was The Wolverine, which only brought in $53.1 million. Deadpool had the highest opening weekend with $132.4 million. And X-Men: The Last Stand, which also loosely adapted the Dark Phoenix Saga, had an opening weekend of $102.7 million.
A $100 million total domestic gross would also be abysmal for the franchise. The Wolverine grossed $132.5 million when it was released back in 2013. The series’ current king is Deadpool, which grossed $363 million. The best performing X-Men team film was also X-Men: The Last Stand. It grossed $234.3 million.
Our source previously indicated that the film would be one hour and 53 minutes and 45 seconds long. However, they have provided us with new information, which indicates the runtime will be only 114 minutes long. It’s possible the film went through some heavy editing over the past month. There were rumblings in May that a file from Fox China indicated the runtime for the film was 110 minutes.
According to a file from Fox China, runtime of Dark Phoenix is 110 minutes. #DarkPhoenix pic.twitter.com/DXdkm82lrh
— Gavin Feng (@gavinfeng97) May 4, 2019
It’s possible there might be two separate cuts of the movie. Or the initial number included the previews before the actual movie.
Here’s the official description of the film:
“This is the story of one of the X-Men’s most beloved characters, Jean Grey, as she evolves into the iconic DARK PHOENIX. During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all. Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet. The film is the most intense and emotional X-Men movie ever made. It is the culmination of 20 years of X-Men movies, as the family of mutants that we’ve come to know and love must face their most devastating enemy yet — one of their own.”
The film sees the return of James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Kodi-Smit McPhee as Nightcrawler, and Evan Peters as Quicksilver. The film also stars Jessica Chastain in an undisclosed role although my colleague Donald Edmonds speculates she could be an astral projection of the Phoenix Force.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix arrives in theaters on June 7th for early shows at 7 p.m.
What do you make of Disney’s expectations for X-Men: Dark Phoenix? Do you plan on seeing it in theaters?