The X-Men: Dark Phoenix move soars into theaters this weekend looking to capitalize on the ongoing craze over superhero films. It’s going to have a lot of work to do as the film is already pulling in negative reviews from the majority of critics.
Heading into the second weekend of June, the superhero flick is hoping to capture some success after “Avengers: Endgame.” According to Box Office Mojo’s report, the new movie brought in $5 million from its Thursday night previews. Those showings mostly started as of 7 p.m. on Thursday but some IMAX Fan Event showings were as early as 6 p.m. last night. While the film was able to match what “War of the Planet of the Apes” achieved in its Thursday previews, it is behind the $8.2 million that “X-Men: Apocalypse” achieved several years ago.
Over at Rotten Tomatoes, the latest Dark Phoenix reviews are proving unkind for the newest 20th Century Fox movie. It’s got an aggregate score of just 22 percent overall based on 171 total reviews from various critics. The site’s audience score is significantly higher as it’s currently a 63 percent overall.
The new film “Dark Phoenix” features recurring X-Men characters Professor X (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) among others. It focuses on Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) who is hit by a cosmic force while the team is on a rescue mission in space. That ends up having catastrophic consequences as she is unable to control whatever has taken her over. The rest of the team must band together in order to try to stop the threats ahead.
It comes as the last film in the X-Men franchise through 20th Century Fox. That series originally launched with the “X-Men: First Class” film and was followed by “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” “X-Men: Apocalypse” was the third film in the series in 2016. “Dark Phoenix” brings the story arc to a close with fans speculating that maybe Disney and Marvel Studios will take over for a reboot.
The 20th Century FOX film “Dark Phoenix” holds a PG-13 rating and a run time of a bit under two hours.
