“Fantastic Four” delivered disappointing results in its box office debut, but it’s not the first superhero flick that has failed to impress fans and critics. It seems that Fox has not been discouraged by the failure that was the most recent reboot of “Fantastic Four.” They are already planning to go ahead with a second film.
Advertisement
“Fantastic Four” was widely panned by critics and received a paltry 9% score on review site Rotten Tomatoes. Fox had great confidence in his abilities and even Lucasfilm hired him to direct a spinoff Star Wars movie.
At this point, to call these four “fantastic” seems misleading. In 2012, Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance, from Sony, launched to $22.1 million (that movie cost notably less to make).
Unfortunately for Fox, the movie didn’t fare that much better overseas, where Hollywood tentpoles often try to make up lost ground. However, the film, starring Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell, made just $26.2m (£17m) in North American cinemas.
In a now deleted Tweet, the filmmaker pointed the finger of blame in Fox’s direction, stating that he had an, er, fantastic version of the origins story that was altered in its journey from page to screen. Sure, it’s just one weekend, but it’s hard to see how this movie can get back on its feet. Granted, Fantastic Four is a far worse bomb than even the worst Spider-Man film, but with a Marvel Studios partnership, they might be able to reignite interest in the franchise.
Another weekend came to pass, and Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation ruled it, again.
It has become quite apparent that Josh Trank’s risky reboot of the “Fantastic Four” franchise has bombed at the box office in a major way.
Advertisement
Barton Crockett, an analyst at FBR & Co., said that Fantastic Four amounts to “a negative start to Fox’s already cautious forecast for a $200 million year-over-year decline in studio segment profits in fiscal year 2016″. But it doesn’t mean that 20th Century Fox is done with the gamma-irradiated superheroes.
