Despite record-breaking sucesss at the global box office thanks to films such as Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel, The Walt Disney Company revealed earnings that came in under expectations, which are due in part to the acquisition of 20th Century Fox and the poor box office performance of the latest X-Men film, Dark Phoenix.
Disney has had another record-breaking year at the box office, already crossing $8 billion globally. But Disney reported a $170 million operating loss for it 21st Century Fox assets, which the company said was due to the theatrical underperformance of titles including Dark Phoenix, which notoriously bombed at the box office this past June.
Dark Phoenix has been rumored to cost Fox $200 million to produce (not including marketing) thanks to reshoots that reworked the film’s third act, which was found to be too similar to Captain America: Civil War and Captain Marvel. To date, the film has grossed $65 million domestically with another $186 million overseas for a worldwide total of $252 million.
“We’re all confident that we can turn around the fortunes of Fox live-action,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said during Disney’s Q3 earnings call today. But Iger also suggested it will be one to two more years before we see Disney’s impact on the film’s Fox has in production.
Written and directed by Simon Kinberg, Dark Phoenix stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters, and Jessica Chastain.
This is the story of one of the X-Men’s most beloved characters, Jean Grey, as she evolves into the iconic DARK PHOENIX. During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all. Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet. The film is the most intense and emotional X-Men movie ever made. It is the culmination of 20 years of X-Men movies, as the family of mutants that we’ve come to know and love must face their most devastating enemy yet — one of their own.
Dark Phoenix is now playing. Stay tuned to Heroic Hollywood for the latest news on Disney, Fox, and the future of the X-Men franchise at Marvel Studios we learn it.
