Despite strong critical and fan buzz, X-Men: First Class opened the second lowest gross of any of the films in the popular comic book franchise. The $56 million in box office sales was just barely above the $54 million the first installment earned on its opening weekend.
The box office debut was far below the opening for X-Men: Origins: Wolverine a couple of years ago.
What this means for the future of the franchise remains to be seen. Many at distributor 20th Century Fox were taking a glass half-full view of the results, pointing out that Batman Begins started slow but had a solid run during its initial run.
Whether or not X-Men can duplicate this by good word of mouth and repeat business remains to be seen. The film does face some solid competition in the coming weeks including Super 8 and another comic book movie, Green Lantern.
In second place was The Hangover, Part II. The sequel dropped 62% in ticket sales from last weekend, taking in $32.4 million.
The animated comedy Kung Fu Panda 2 was third with $24.3 million, lifting its overall gross to $100.4 million.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was fourth with $18 million, followed by the comedy Bridesmaids with $12.1 million.
I think the movie will make a lot more. I think early movie goers saw the trailers and thought it was going to be another angsty teen movie like I Am Number Four (which was terrible until the last 20 minutes), or the Twilight films. I almost threw up in my mouth a little for mentioning the “T” word.
I went and saw X-Men and I really thought the movie was great. I even told friends that it was the best X-Men ever. I must admit to being kind of bummed about its low opening weekend box office. The Hangover II was an utter disappointment, yet moviegoers by the trillions lined up to see it. Oh well, no accounting for taste. Again, I say if one wants to see a good movie with lots of action and a good storyline, go see X-Men-First Class.