It was predicted on Friday, and now it’s official: 20th Century Fox’s reboot of Fantastic Four has been clobbered at the North American box office, pulling in just $26.2 million on its debut weekend to place second behind Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation on $29.4 million.
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As late as Tuesday, Fox had tracking data that suggested the opening the industry was widely expecting: about $40 million to $50 million.
Trank’s superhero movie starring Miles Teller, Michael B Jordan, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell has received overwhelmingly negative reviews since it began previewing earlier this week. He seemed to acknowledge those tensions, blaming studio-mandated reshoots for the poor critical notices in a tweet Thursday that he subsequently deleted. Trank reportedly exhibited freaky behavior on set that was so extreme it cost him his gig directing a “Star Wars” spin-off. That’s among one of the lowest nationwide openings for a Streep film, although the movie’s theater count is modest and its location average ($4,367) isn’t that far behind The Gift’s. A C minus CinemaScore means that word-of-mouth is going to be toxic.
Tom Cruise likes scaling high things, so he’s no doubt happy to see Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation maintain its place at the very top of the US box office charts for a second weekend.
Overseas, where Hollywood tentpoles often make up ground, the news was mostly grim as Fantastic Four launched to a tepid $34.1 million from 43 markets for a global bow of $60.3 million (one standout market was Mexico). That’s a huge win for start-up studio STX Entertainment for whom The Gift is its first major release project.
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The original debuted to $56.1 million in 2005, and Rise of the Silver Surfer opened to $58.1 million in 2007. The Aardman ‘toon appeared to underperform in 11th with $4 million, though given its status as a pickup by Lionsgate, it’s actually not a bad opening given the current competition. The studio is hoping for legs with “Rickie” as older audiences do have the need to see a film in its first weekend. Boxing drama Southpaw was 10th with $4.76 million and while we don’t usually venture outside the top 10 in these roundups, we’d be remiss in mentioning Shaun The Sheep. The film didn’t fare much better overseas, where it earned $34.1 million.
