Fantastic Flop meets its Doom at the box office

Fantastic Four meets its Doom at the box office

“Make mine Marvel!” was a classic Stan Lee comicbook sales pitch ad phrase in 60s & 70‘s that can totally apply to this weekend audiences rejection to the latest Fox failed attempt to sell their
latest clumsy interpretation of Marvel’s first family. Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four not only failed to reach the extremely pessimistic pundits estimates of a $46 million opening, but fell apart since Friday and its numbers kept diminishing as the bad reviews kept growing to end its weekend run with a disastrous $26.2 million and getting beaten by Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation in its second week. This is the worst opening in the franchise history (the first two ‘Fantastic Four’ & ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer’ opened to $56 million & $58 million respectively which today are the equivalent of $78 million & $80 million...and those so-so films had better reviews in comparison). Heck, only one other Marvel superhero title opened with lower numbers: Elektra with $12.8 million, but to be fair that film budget was a mere $43 million. Both of these films were from Fox. Marvel fans boycotted the film and it hurt. You can forget those plans Fox had for a sequel (they were so confident that they had already a date separated in theater chains for next year); heck if they are any smart they should keep this cast away from crossing over to that planned team-up with the X-Men (poison by association). Fox just needs to do the right thing: sell the freaking rights back to Marvel. The other option is wait another 9 years and reboot again (not a good idea) before the rights revert back to Marvel for free. Anyway, if the international box office doesn’t come to the rescue, like it did to that other domestic dud Terminator Genysis, then Fox has a ‘fantastic Flop' in their hands.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation unexpectedly took the top spot by default with an estimated $29.4 million. The espionage action sequel had a 47% drop in its second week, but that was enough to conquer the fiasco superhero team film debut.

In the third spot the indie film The Gift surprised everyone by doing better than expected with $12 million. Apparently the tv ads did marvels for this little film. In the fourth spot Vacation, the reboot that nobody wanted (are we still talking about Fantastic Four?) added $8.7 million to its ark. Ant-Man took the fifth spot. The Marvel film has grossed $147 million domestically and crossed the $300 million internationally.

Meryl Streep’s badly reviewed Ricki and The Flash debuts with $6.9 million. On the other hand the critically acclaimed Shaun of The Sheep (99% certified fresh!!!) failed to crack the top ten list as it took only $3.9 million proving that the good or bad reviews doesn’t translate into box office gold or failure, but what appeals to audiences...and ‘Fantastic Flop’ didn’t.

Official numbers will be updated tomorrow evening.

 

Okay actual numbers are in and is even worst news for Fox as its Josh Trank 'Fantastic Foul' made even less than the estimates: the badly received film made only $25.6 million which is just a bit more than the opening numbers for the also critically panned 2012 Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance but that sequel film only cost $57 million and did recoup its investment. MI: Rogue Nation took $28.5 million, The Gift $11.8 million, Vacation $8.9 million and Ant-Man $7.9 million.

Speaking of Ant-Man...it is interesting to note how analysts in the industry tend to view the grosses of some films as a success or disappointment based solely on the content of the film and not the numbers per se. Ant-Man has been tagged as disappointment based only on the Marvel brand recent records and not on the actual grosses vs budget. But then Tom Cruise's 5th installment in the M.I. franchise which opened to similar numbers and has maintained an identical track record was praised as a success and reinvigorating the franchise. Both films had similar budgets and both are expected to end their domestic run with $170 million. So, why one is viewed a success and the other isn't? :scratcher:

 

I'm so, so glad this shit bombed.

 

Me too, but mainly because I want Fox to sell the rights back to Marvel. Can you imagine MCU Phase 4? The Avengers (plus Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange, Spiderman, the Inhumans, guardians of the galaxy AND the Fantastic Four) in a battle royale against freaking Galactus? plus Silver Surfer & Namor tossed in the mix!!! :crafty:

 

This is a disaster for Fox.

 

Everyone and their mother want Marvel to get the rights back.

 

word

 

There is an online petition from fans asking Fox to sell the rights to Marvel. so far over 26,792 signatures have been signed. Join the cause!!!

https://www.change.org/p/everybody-...ghts-to-fantastic-four-back-to-marvel-studios

On a side note, one single idiot started a petition for Fox to release the 'Josh Trank cut' as he believes the director is not to blame. So far the petition has collected only 1 vote. His. ::

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fantastic-four-the-josh-trank-cut