As the weekend’s only major opener, ‘X-Men: First Class‘ dominated the box office with a $56 million debut. That’s about $3 million above expectations. When you take into account ticket inflation from the previous four installments, ‘First Class’ comes in dead last for overall openings in the franchise.
Speculation has placed the blame on the mostly unknown cast, the lack of Hugh Jackman’s central character Wolverine, and the fact that ‘First Class’ is the series’ fifth entry. Personally, I blame it on the fact that the last two ‘X-Men’ films were garbage. ‘The Last Stand‘ earned a rotten 57% on the Tomatometer and ‘Wolverine‘ drew only 37%. People don’t want to give ‘X-Men’ another chance. Hopefully, the positive word of mouth and critical response (check out my review here) will give ‘First Class’ a long life on the big screen. After all, ‘First Class’ is tied with ‘X2’ on the Tomatometer as the best of the ‘X-Men’ movies.
Despite a record-setting five-day Memorial Weekend opening, ‘The Hangover Part II‘ suffered a 62% drop-off, locking in the #2 spot almost $24 million behind ‘First Class’. Having grossed over $186 million domestically (on an $80 million budget) in its first two weekends, ‘Part II’ will most likely lead to a ‘Part III’. Here’s hoping that ‘The Hangover’ follows the ‘American Pie’ mold and starts sending its crap sequels straight to DVD.
Also opening strongly in a very limited release is Mike Mills’ dramedy ‘Beginners‘. Available on only five screens across the U.S., this Ewan McGregor vehicle brought in $135,000, averaging a $27,000 gross on each screen. Much like Terrance Malick’s ‘The Tree of Life’ and Woody Allen’s ‘Midnight in Paris’, the delightful ‘Beginners’ is set to expand over the next few weeks. If you read my review, you know that this is an indie film you will not want to miss.
How do you think ‘First Class’ will hold-up again ‘Super 8’ next weekend?
Top 10:
1. ‘X-Men: First Class’ (Fox) – $56 million
2. ‘The Hangover Part II’ (Warner Bros.) – $32.4 million
3. ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ (Paramount/DreamWorks) – $24.3 million
4. ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Buena Vista) – $18 million
5. ‘Bridesmaids’ (Universal) – $12.1 million
6. ‘Thor’ (Paramount) – $4.2 million
7. ‘Fast Five’ (Universal) – $3.2 million
8. ‘Midnight in Paris’ (Sony Pictures Classics) – $2.9 million
9. ‘Jumping the Broom’ (TriStar) – $0.8 million
10. ‘Something Borrowed’ (Warner Bros.) – $0.7 million
Dail Whiteley
i’m sure it’s a good movie but i’m a little worn out over comic book / superhero movies and i think that most people have also.
Brian H
It is probably as a good a movie that can be made about using he Xmen property. They clearly studied the Batman and Star Trek reboots and made the story feel fresh and familiar at the same time.
The last two movies had to make people cringe when they heard about this movie, but hopefully they can make a sequel to this movie without a major retooling.
motorheadache
While I felt this excellent film deserved to have a Dark Knight level of success, it’s nice that it at least did fairly well and performed above expectations, so no worries about continuing the story from here. I suspect good word-of-mouth will help carry this movie for at least the next couple of weeks.