There is a most pleasant surprise in this week’s box office: A pair of genuinely good films made money.
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The latest X-Men instalment from 20th Century Fox is on track for takings of about $80m by Monday. Critics weren’t as kind as they were with the first Alice revival film in 2010, with just 30% giving positive reviews, according to Rottentomatoes.
Disney won’t be so lucky with Alice Through the Looking Glass, however.
The letter is signed by Paradis and dated Friday in Los Angeles.
Some fans called for a boycott of his film. Doug Creutz, a media analyst at Cowen and Co wrote in a recent report: “With box office trends over the last 16 months suggesting that a few films are likely to take the lion’s share of the returns, it is hard to envision a scenario in which a significant number of this summer’s releases are not money-losers, or at least disappointments”.
“I think the reviews had more to do with the film’s performance than any personal drama for Depp”, Dergarabedian said.
After dismal reviews, director James Bobin’s movie took an estimated $US35 million ($49 million) from more than 3760 cinemas over the weekend in the USA – 70 per cent behind Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland when it was a major 3D event after the release of Avatar.
X-Men: Apocalypse debuted this weekend in 4,150 theaters, with Disney debuting Alice Through the Looking Glass in 3,763 theaters.
“We’re very happy with this result as we introduce new characters in the X-Men universe”, said Fox domestic distribution chief Chris Aronson. We’ll continue to take those big bets.
Hollis declined to speculate on the impact the allegations against Depp had on the films opening.
Directed by Singer, X-Men: Apocalypse is in theaters now. The film has opened in 72% of the global market, with France (June 1), Japan (July 1), and South Korea (Sept. 8) still on deck.
Oscar Isaac stars as Apocalypse, along with prequel series regulars Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult and Rose Byrne. Its right on track with what our expectations were going in.. But was up 5% from 2015’s Memorial Day weekend, one of the worst in recent years. The Birds’ ticket sales dropped 50 percent this weekend, and isn’t expected to jump back up. “Captain America: Civil War” followed with $15.1 million in its fourth weekend.
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A marketplace crowded with holdover films targeting the same family audience – “The Angry Birds Movie”, “Captain America: Civil War” and Disney’s “The Jungle Book” – may have also been a factor.
