Dark Phoenix box office flop will cost over $100 million

The final X-Men installment, Dark Phoenix failed at the box office in its first weekend. It is now projected to lose a cost of nine figures.

Dark Phoenix, the last X-Men installment, is a critical flop. That much is already apparent. It wrapped up Fox’s run of films in disappointment after 19 years, which currently exceeds the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Not only that, but Dark Phoenix flopped at the box office, which is the difference-maker for deciding a film’s success over reviews and reactions. As of this writing, it has made just $35.3 million domestically and $103.7 million internationally. It had the lowest opening in the United States for an X-Men film.

The potential endgame is even more disastrous, however, as Deadline reports Dark Phoenix will lose between $100 million to $120 million, due to production and reshoot costs that exceeded $350 million.

Timing may have impacted these numbers. Deadline added this film was “never intended to be a summer film,” but to have an “off-season” release, before Captain Marvel to become the first female-led Marvel film. Instead, with reshoots and delays, it followed up 90 days later with a box office whimper.

Placing Dark Phoenix after not only that MCU blockbuster but five weeks after Avengers: Endgame, proved problematic, as well. Endgame closed a chapter in the superhero film realm. The Jean Grey-centric film had the impossible task of following that up a short time later, sandwiched between this and Spider-Man: Far From Home in July.

Basically, Dark Phoenix was positioned for doom, even if it wrapped filming in the summer of 2017, long before Disney and Fox agreed to their merger.

Now, less than one week into its release, Dark Phoenix must navigate the box office and try to recoup at least some of the money that will disappear. It may be too late for that, though, after a head-scratching promotional campaign and poor placement in a crowded field.