Days of Future Past The Official X-Men: First Class Box Office Discussion Thread! - Part 1

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Again, even if they made a decision, they're not going to release a press release.
 
I doubt fox will announce the sequel anytime soon. They are going to wait for worldwide video sales and rentals before making a decision. Besides, they are busy with The Wolverine, Daredevil and Fantastic Four reboots.

Agreed

I think they are waiting for The Wolverine to be released.

And if FOX can make First Class in just like 2 years, they can definitely do it with Second Class.
 
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Agreed

I think they are working for The Wolverine to be released.

And if FOX can make First Class in just like 2 years, they can definitely do it with Second Class.

Not even. Official production timeline, including Vaughn being formally offered director's role, was 11 months. @_@
 
I think the first we'll officially hear of a sequel is when a screenwriter is hired. Fox probably won't formally make an announcement until much, much later.
 
or an interview from Bryan or Matthew revealing they are working on the sequel...
 
Not even. Official production timeline, including Vaughn being formally offered director's role, was 11 months. @_@

But just because it was announced that way doesn't mean it happened otherwise behind the scenes. Vaugn might have been in talks way before we knew or the news was leaked !

Also just because they have many movies in the line up doesn't mean they are too busy to look at X-men. Fox doesn't have 4 employees you know ! Different people can work on different thing. X-men second class may be in discussion now to explore possibility of release dates, direction etc.
 
I am afraid Fox will fast track a sequel to Apes than this. Apes had so many things going against it.

1) No one was asking for another apes flick after 2001's ****** movie.
2) Directed by an English director who had only 1 movie on his resume "The Escapist"
3) Rushed production
4) James Franco boxoffice poison
5) Not much hype or buzz until fox started its excellent trailers/tv spots campaign
6) Last big summer movie of the year
7) Today's generation haven't heard of the old ape movies.
8) Everyone was saying that this will be bomb of the summer

Yet, it will do $48+ million this weekend thanks to the marketing and great reviews. Will comfortably outgross its 93 million budget domestically. $300+ million worldwide is locked.

Compare this to X-men

1) Coming of crappy X3 and Wolverine, but still a very relevant and popular franchise
2) Directed by Matthew Vaughn, a fanboy/critic favourite director
3) Rushed production
4) Had some hype and buzz before the release
5) Had great trailers and tv spot campaign like Apes
6) Fairly well known actors in critics and fanboy circles

Opened with a disappointing $55 million with the excellent trailers/tv spots campaign and great reviews. Didn't even get good legs after all the critical acclaim it received. Barely made back its $140 million (after tax credits) budget domestically. Will end up with $350 million worldwide.

Seriously, X-men:FC disappointed at the boxoffice. I really think X-men:FC should have grossed atleast $170 million domestically, but its a notoriously frontloaded franchise and Matthew Vaughn is a boxoffice curse. Also, the budget should have never been more than $100 million. it didn't feel like a $140 million movie at all. Don't give me the rush excuse. Planet of the Apes was rushed as well, but it costed only $93 million and it had much more CGI than X-men.
 
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I am afraid Fox will fast track a sequel to Apes than this. Apes had so many things going against it.

1) No one was asking for another apes flick after 2001's ****** movie.
2) Directed by an English director who had only 1 movie on his resume "The Escapist"
3) Rushed production
4) James Franco boxoffice poison
5) Not much hype or buzz until fox started its excellent trailers/tv spots campaign
6) Last big summer movie of the year
7) Today's generation haven't heard of the old ape movies.
8) Everyone was saying that this will be bomb of the summer

Yet, it will do $48+ million this weekend thanks to the marketing and great reviews. Will comfortably outgross its 93 million budget domestically. $300+ million worldwide is locked.

Compare this to X-men

1) Coming of crappy X3 and Wolverine, but still a very relevant and popular franchise
2) Directed by Matthew Vaughn, a fanboy/critic favourite director
3) Rushed production
4) Had some hype and buzz before the release
5) Had great trailers and tv spot campaign like Apes
6) Fairly well known actors in critics and fanboy circles

Opened with a disappointing $55 million with the excellent trailers/tv spots campaign and great reviews. Didn't even get good legs after all the critical acclaim it received. Barely made back its $140 million (after tax credits) budget domestically. Will end up with $350 million worldwide.

Seriously, X-men:FC disappointed at the boxoffice. I really think X-men:FC should have grossed atleast $170 million domestically, but its a notoriously frontloaded franchise and Matthew Vaughn is a boxoffice curse. Also, the budget should have never been more than $100 million. it didn't feel like a $140 million movie at all. Don't give me the rush excuse. Planet of the Apes was rushed as well, but it costed only $93 million and it had much more CGI than X-men.

A few counterpoints:
--James Franco isn't boxoffice poison... I'm not sure why you think this. He doesn't have MAJOR name draw like say Brad Pitt, but he is not the reason his movies may fail.
--But the rest you say is true, they really last minuted the trailers on this one... but then again everything I saw for it was in Japan which is a good 3-6 months behind North America for films...

X-Men counterpoints:
Um, this film had a LOT going against it
--Coming off of crappy Wolverine and X3. This isn't a good thing, this is a BAD thing! 3 good movies and 1 bad one, this movie would have gotten more attention. But 2/4 rotten ones???? My faith in this movie was gone the second they announced they had started production on it. If it hadn't been the only English movie in theatres I never would have seen it at all. Many of my friends resisted it for the same reason despite glowing reviews.
--Many people didn't even KNOW about this movie, the marketing was so bad and last minute. Didn't trailers begin a month beforehand?
--People who DID follow the marketing were treated to such bad bad bad photoshop images they looked like a 12 year-old's tech class assignment. Worse. (silhouette pics anyone??)
--Not sure how Vaughn is a boxoffice curse either. He's directed FOUR movies, ever. And KickAss was pretty niche. He's not a draw though, GA probs wouldn't know his name until you mentioned his films. Even then...
--Rushed production is also not a good thing....
--The actors were NOT well-known at all. James McAvoy is an excellent actor but the General Audience who would go to see X-Men, anticipating explosions and powers and action, are not typically the ones who would sit down for Atonement or The Last Station. Michael Fassbender had minor roles in some Hollywood films but otherwise did a lot of smaller films that didn't really reach GA in the US (Hunger, Fish Tank). The next most famous one would be Jennifer Lawrence who gained critical acclaim for Winter's Bone but again, that's not exactly in the same genre as X-Men. The rest were virtual unknowns to the GA. The other X-Men movies already had a huge edge with Gandalf and Captain Picard. Stewart and McKellan are famous as it is but their other roles are in genres that can tie in easily with X-Men's crowd.
--Again, critical acclaim is worthless when you're following two such bad films. Fans and GA alike were really put out by X3 and Wolverine (fanboys were ******** over character changes and GA was put off by how poorly executed the movies were in so many ways). Like I said, I saw the 4/5 stars XMFC kept getting and its 87% on RT and had friends telling me it was awesome and I *STILL* didn't want to spend my precious 10$ on it. This is probably the number one reason it's the most downloaded flick these days... more than Harry Potter!

The GOOD news is that this movie has completely saved the series. It is now commonly referred to being as good as or for some people BETTER than X2, the most widely liked X-Men flick. If they do go ahead with X4 (please god no), they will have a renewed interest in it that they would never have had without XMFC. They really should recognize it and give it the sequel it deserves. And I think they will. This weekend we'll pass 350WW which is excellent.

And don't knock the domestic vs. foreign. Chronicles of Narnia's last two films did absolutely miserably in domestic... but they both got/are getting sequels because WW did well. I have hope for XMSC!
 
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Agreed. Well known actors in fanboy circles? Stuff like that doesn't mean much.
 
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Needless to say how awfully was X:FC marketed, compared to Rise of the Planet of Apes.

I believe Fox will take a more careful approach with its decision and wait for the DVD sales numbers. It it performs well on the sales, the sequel will be certainly considered for examination.
 
I just saw Super 8 (only released this weekend in the UK) and was underwhelmed. I liked the gentle, patient beginning before the main event but overall it was self-indulgent, the creature was revealed too early (and we saw too much), couldn't see a point to it apart from Abrams/Spielberg reminiscing about their youth (hence self-indulgent), I felt no emotion at all. The young people sitting ahead of me were mostly bored, judging from the chatting and fidgeting. There were less than 20 people in the auditorium, not good for first weekend. This gets a 'meh' from me... doesn't come anywhere close to ET or Close Encounters.

My friend and I both agreed First Class was a much better film than Super 8.
 
I am afraid Fox will fast track a sequel to Apes than this. Apes had so many things going against it.

1) No one was asking for another apes flick after 2001's ****** movie.
2) Directed by an English director who had only 1 movie on his resume "The Escapist"
3) Rushed production
4) James Franco boxoffice poison
5) Not much hype or buzz until fox started its excellent trailers/tv spots campaign
6) Last big summer movie of the year
7) Today's generation haven't heard of the old ape movies.
8) Everyone was saying that this will be bomb of the summer

Yet, it will do $48+ million this weekend thanks to the marketing and great reviews. Will comfortably outgross its 93 million budget domestically. $300+ million worldwide is locked.

Well, Planet of the Apes is an iconic and enduring franchise, so there is always interest. The trailers proved that interest was worthwhile, I heard the buzz created by the first showing of footage at the Fox media screening for First Class. Excellent CGI in modernising a brand was the selling point.

Compare this to X-men

1) Coming of crappy X3 and Wolverine, but still a very relevant and popular franchise
2) Directed by Matthew Vaughn, a fanboy/critic favourite director
3) Rushed production
4) Had some hype and buzz before the release
5) Had great trailers and tv spot campaign like Apes
6) Fairly well known actors in critics and fanboy circles

Yes, the marketing was weak to say the least. Maybe the rushed production meant marketing materials weren't available, maybe they had trimmed back the marketing budget because of the excessive amount spent on production.

The decision to try to entice the online crowd proved a mistake. Fans online had already made up their minds whether to see it or not, and the crappy posters didn't do anything to offer reassurance. They needed to get the mainstream more interested not the obsessives online (many of whom had decided to give it a miss, because they felt hurt over the previous two movies or just want the rights to go back to Marvel)

The rushed production could not have helped. The actors and writers all mentioned how nightmarish it was. The Amazing Spider-Man was filming at the same time but isn't out for another year.

Opened with a disappointing $55 million with the excellent trailers/tv spots campaign and great reviews. Didn't even get good legs after all the critical acclaim it received. Barely made back its $140 million (after tax credits) budget domestically. Will end up with $350 million worldwide.

It was a bit disappointing but the only big weekends this year have been from the big, bulletproof franchises like Pirates, Potter and Transformers. Thor was boosted by 3D and IMAX.

Seriously, X-men:FC disappointed at the boxoffice. I really think X-men:FC should have grossed atleast $170 million domestically, but its a notoriously frontloaded franchise and Matthew Vaughn is a boxoffice curse. Also, the budget should have never been more than $100 million. it didn't feel like a $140 million movie at all. Don't give me the rush excuse. Planet of the Apes was rushed as well, but it costed only $93 million and it had much more CGI than X-men.

I don't think Vaughn is a curse, but he isn't a draw either. The budget probably crept up because of the rushed schedule. Planet of the Apes spent all the money on the apes CGI, but there was much more varied CGI needed in X-Men.

The main mistake with First Class (apart from the rushed production) was the poor marketing to the mainstream audience. I saw McAvoy on one chat show, and he hardly 'sold' the film very well, he was sort of half-hearted about it. It's possible the rushed production meant that actors/footage were just not available for marketing/promotion.
 
The main mistake with First Class (apart from the rushed production) was the poor marketing to the mainstream audience. I saw McAvoy on one chat show, and he hardly 'sold' the film very well, he was sort of half-hearted about it. It's possible the rushed production meant that actors/footage were just not available for marketing/promotion.

I don't think any of the actors actually thought it would be GOOD because of the rushed timeline. Interviews with the cast after they were able to see the movie were all pretty positive. McAvoy in particular has been openly fond of the movie and rumor has it he saw it 3-4 times on his own dime... that's more than *I've* seen it!

I think Fox didn't really have much faith in this movie TBH. They were the ones who laid out the short timeline after all, "Hi Matthew, please make this movie in 11 months. Love, Fox". I think they were just looking for a placeholder movie and didn't expect it to do well. So all THAT considered this movie should have exceeded their box office expectations.
 
I just saw Super 8 (only released this weekend in the UK) and was underwhelmed. I liked the gentle, patient beginning before the main event but overall it was self-indulgent, the creature was revealed too early (and we saw too much), couldn't see a point to it apart from Abrams/Spielberg reminiscing about their youth (hence self-indulgent), I felt no emotion at all. The young people sitting ahead of me were mostly bored, judging from the chatting and fidgeting. There were less than 20 people in the auditorium, not good for first weekend. This gets a 'meh' from me... doesn't come anywhere close to ET or Close Encounters.

My friend and I both agreed First Class was a much better film than Super 8.
Should of seem Attack The Block its way better than Super 8 :)
 
It Is at 350 Million worldwide for now.

Funny how some online critized Fox films and X-men First Class and rise of The Planet of the Apes are emerging as 2 of best films of Summer.

X-Men First Class was the best of the superhero films.Sorry Marvel Studio fanboys I will take First Class over both Thor and Captain America.Although Captain America IS better than Thor In my oporion.

Now the waiting begins for what after The Wolverine we will get next.X4 or Second Class.
 
What's scary is that they were two of the best movies this summer. Who woulda thunk it, considering their history in recent years?

I can't get over how good Rise of the Planet of the Apes was. :wow:
 
Yay $145 million in US Box-Office!!!

Best of Summer 2011
1. X-Men: First Class
2. Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows Part 2
3. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
4. Thor
5. Kung Fu Panda 2
6. Captain America: The First Avenger
7. Crazy Stupid Love
8. Bridesmaids
 
The only real bummer is that the movie didn't quite reach it's production budget. Being at $145m though isn't too bad. Then considering it's $350m worldwide total and there really is no cause for alarm.

Even using the ole 'net adage of 2x budget XM:FC is a win/win pre DVD sales and any other secondary profit lines.

This is FOX, the studio who picked up the Narnia series based on the strength of its global brand. They are looking at doing another despite how it performed domestically to budget(hint worse than the $15m spread for XM:FC). The X-Men performed well overseas and once production gets started on The Wolverine this Fall I fully expect talk of Second Class to start. The timing is great cause then DVD #'s will have begun coming in, which I expect will be good as well.
I can see the press release:
Dateline: Nov. 15, 2011
Fox studios has just begun production on its delayed Wolverine followup after the catastrophe in Japan this past Spring with the tsunami. The departure of it's director Arronfosky following the delay also caused a bit of a headache. However, now The Wolverine, the 6th mutant film in Fox's X-Men franchise is underway.

This allows Fox to focus on the prior installment X-Men: First Class. While slightly underperforming with $146m stateside but $350m worldwide it's still a certified success. Now with early figures coming in from the DVD/Blu-Ray release two weeks ago it's clear a follow-up to this prequel will go forward.

I could see that as a type of mock-up in any variety of online outlets.
 
^Damn, for a second there I thought that was the actual press release. I was all set to celebrate a sequel. :csad:
 
thanks por updating, elec.

on other news, Marvel and Disney have just announced two big movies for 2014, one in May and one for July.

Another big movie for May, along with Amazing Spiderman 2....

Fox, What are U waiting???????????????????????????????

May is a great month!!! make the announcement before all the other studios choose a May release too!
 
Fox likes to wait till the last minute. Looks like First Class 2 will also have a ****** release date.
 
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