Wolverine was already the most popular X-Men character even before X-Men 1 was released. He was in every cartoon and videogame before X1 was released. In the intro of the first animated series, look who was shown first? Wolverine. Plus he already had his own comic-book series.
And Origins wasn't going to beat X2/X3 because like I said before, Wolverine with the X-Men sells more than just Wolverine himself. Plus Origins was a prequel.
As others have already pointed out, it was Cyclops shown first in the animated series. But your logic is still flawed. Just because Wolverine had his own comic doesn't mean he had to dominate all the films at the expense of everyone else.
And you need to ask why the X-Men films are more popular than the Wolverine films. The answer is that people are fed up with Wolverine dominating everything and they like to see other characters and hear about their stories and see their powers. It didn't matter that Origins was a prequel - it wasn't a good enough film at the end of the day and that's why it didn't do as well (look at the reviews on RT). Jackman and the studio thought anything they did with Jackman's Wolverine would be a massive success - and they were wrong.
It's time to give some character development to others - and to bring in some new characters.
The problem with this franchise is that it does one thing to death until it's played out. Marvel Studios is exploring new ideas like Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Black Panther - and it IS also doing a spin-off with the SHIELD TV series. Fox needs to do the same.
You need to expand your thinking a bit. For years we've been told that certain costumes, characters and settings were far too fantastical for X-Men, that their powers and looks had to be toned down. And then along came Marvel and showed that all that fantastical stuff could work. Marvel has confidence in the material whereas Fox is too restrained and too worried about it all the time. They need to think bigger. Millar said the X-Men universe was as big as the MCU - so let's see the evidence.
All it needs is good writing and good directing and for the studio to be a bit more adventurous rather than keeping a lid on the X-Men. Let them soar, let them be epic!
You can face palm all you want.
But most of you can't carry an argument.
You all know a film with the original cast is gonna bring more money than spin-offs and prequels.
you pretty much wont accept what people are sayin to you because its not what you personally want and we know what you personally want because your always sayin it and keep repeatin the same argument over and over and what you say is actually very one minded and flawed.
MCU is not similar to X-Men. Just because X-Men's universe is as big as MCU, it doesn't mean they carry as many films as MCU.
You haven't been reading some of the posts in this thread, so I will say it again. At least the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Inhumans can be seen in a different category even if they appear in The Avengers, they wouldn't fall under the category of Iron Man films, the category of Captain America films, the category of Thor films. But Deadpool, Wolverine, First Class, New Mutants, X-Factor, X-Force all falls under the X-Men category and thats why it would have an effect to the future X-Men movie releases if they don't perform well at the box-office. And knowing FOX, they would certainly let the viewers know that they are spin-off movies from the original X-Men series. With MCU, even Guardians of the Galaxy and their movies bombed at the box-office, it wouldn't have an effect on future Iron Man/Avengers movies.
The only one placing them in a different category is you. That thinking is limited. There is really no reason that a Guardians of the Galaxy movie should do well. None one knows who they are. The don't have a large exiting fanbase. They haven't had a cartoon etc. But you know what? Marvel doesn't care. They are doing everything to build anticipation for the film, so people want to see it. That's good marketing. They did it successfully with all their films so far to the point that Iron Man is a household name as or more popular Wolverine at this point or at least in the same category.
When people talk about the similarities between MCU and X-men it's the universes and their ability to sustain a variety of properties successfully. You keep limiting your think based on "oh it's just a spin-off of X-men it won't be successful". Instead think of them as properties that simply exist in the same universe. Granted what we've had so far has been spin-offs. But future films wouldn't need to be. Just attach them to the broader X-men universe. A universe in which the previous films took place. You don't have to do another prequel or anything, but you could move forward the way the MCU has. Just because the Avengers exist doesn't mean they had to show up in Iron Man 3 or Winter Soldier or the next Thor. But they do all occupy the same universe. Now I'm not as versed in X-men lore as some but I would think there a lot of interesting properties tied to X-men that are ripe for a film. And just like with Guardians they may not be well known by the GA but with a solid director, good casting etc you could the kind of buzz Guardians is now generating. For example the character Abigail Brand is or did date Beast in the comic. She runs an organization called SWORD, pretty much Shield in space and defends earth from aliens ect. Now I don't know if fox has the rights or not but I think that could be a way for Fox to get into the cosmic elements of the franchise. You have the Shi'nar empire, Vulcan, the other Summers brother etc.
I get that you have a very specific viewpoint on this scenario, but you have to acknowledge there is more than one way for them to approach it.
Anyway I do owe you an apology. I went back this weekend and watched the first two X-men movies and they were fantastic!!!t: I forgot just how good they were. I allowed my dislike for the third to cloud my judgement on the first two. Bryan Singer gets a lot of undeserved hate. I'm now pretty exited about DOFP.
One issue is you can't say wolverine is the favorite character then blame origins failings because he is not with the other Xmen/cast, it doesn't work like that, it had every reason to do a small bit better then X3, it told wolverines backstory which was left a mystery along with cameos of really quite popular mutants
Avengers was a hit and because of that iron man 3 is making the big bucks too, the other characters ain't involved
Even if Origins was a good movie it wouldn't outsold X3. Like I said, Wolverine with the X-Men sells more than just Wolverine himself.
It worked well before because it was the first X-Men spin-off movie/first prequel movie/first Wolverine movie and it was released after the highly successful X-Men 3.
Its really just the X-Men and FOX who keeps releasing spin-off movies and I think 3 spin-off movies are enough for now and they need to go back to basics and releasing films with the original cast who are labeled as the "X-Men".
And Iron Man wasn't a spin-off movie. It was introduced to the general audience as a new superhero film that was turned into a series then the lead character appeared in a cross-over/team-up movie with other superheroes that got a movie too. Iron Man/Hulk/Thor/Captain America weren't spin-offs. Most of the people who watched Iron Man had no idea about this MCU thing. They were marketed as their own thing and not coming from an ongoing movie series.
MCU is not similar to X-Men. Just because X-Men's universe is as big as MCU, it doesn't mean they carry as many films as MCU.
You haven't been reading some of the posts in this thread, so I will say it again. At least the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Inhumans can be seen in a different category even if they appear in The Avengers, they wouldn't fall under the category of Iron Man films, the category of Captain America films, the category of Thor films. But Deadpool, Wolverine, First Class, New Mutants, X-Factor, X-Force all falls under the X-Men category and thats why it would have an effect to the future X-Men movie releases if they don't perform well at the box-office. And knowing FOX, they would certainly let the viewers know that they are spin-off movies from the original X-Men series. With MCU, even Guardians of the Galaxy and their movies bombed at the box-office, it wouldn't have an effect on future Iron Man/Avengers movies.
And I bet, if Marvel Studios has the movie rights for the X-Men/Fantastic Four, they would just focus on releasing films with the team like X1, X2, X3, FF1, FF2, FF3 and once in 3 to 2 years, they would appear in The Avengers and have small cameos in the other film. But I doubt they will release a lot of spin-offs like FOX already did with the X-Men series.
And of course, FOX could haven given First Class, the title of the 1st of the prequel series/trilogy but now that they brought back the original cast instead of just releasing a 2nd film with the cast of First Class. Things have changed. For me, the appeal of doing a First Class trilogy is gone when they brought back the original cast.
And I can see why you would want to continue the series with the most popular characters. But the problem with bringing back all the OT cast all the time is that there isn't going to much room for new characters, and there definitely isn't going to be room for including Deadpool (who just doesn't belong in a regular X-Men movie) or X-Force. To add new characters and new actors, Fox will have to sacrifice some of the existing characters and actors or we will get an overcrowded mess like X3. Even DoFP looks like it has too many characters to develop properly.
Yes, that's probably what Marvel Studios would do because they already have a whole load of other comic book movies like Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Guardians, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange. And they only make a maximum of two movies a year anyway.
But Fox does need to expand the X-Men's world. Fans are now expecting Shi'ar/Starjammers/Imperial Guard, Savage Land, Apocalypse, Sinister, Omega Red, Alpha Flight.