In order to convey that the X-Men are smaller, less-known characters in the Marvel Universe compared to The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man, director Bryan Singer has been given to describe the “X-Men” of late as the “bastard stepchild of the comic-book universe.” And while the X-Men are far from underground or on the fringes, perhaps Singer’s comments do have a tiny bit of merit. While his latest X-picture, “X-Men: Days Of Future Past,” did open to $90.7 million this weekend, that’s far below the forecasted $100+ million the soaring reviews helped project; the film did fall below the opening weekend gross of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Godzilla,” and even the poorly reviewed “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” So yes, ‘Days Of Future Past’ had the 2nd best opening weekend of an X-men movie ever (after “X-Men: The Last Stand”), but relatively, it’s the lowest opening weekend gross of all the summer blockbusters thus far.
It makes me extremely sad that The Last Stand had a better opening weekend. However, that was coming off the heels of the first two X-Men films that were “good” and “even better.” The general movie-going populace had no reason to suspect that Brett Ratner would release a big whopping can of stupid on them.
But $90 Million is not a small opening either. And in fact, Box Office Mojo reports that the film has made $261.7 Million world-wide thus far.
Hopefully I’ll be writing my official review tonight, but let’s just say that this is easily the best X-Men film so far, and I quite liked the first two. Let’s hope they can keep Singer at the helm and make a few more great X-Men films!