The Antipodean

Early numbers are starting to come in so it's time for a new box office thread I think:

Friday Update #1: Sources report that Fantastic Four bowed to a lackluster $2.7 million from shows beginning at 8pm in 2,900 theaters last night. Unfortunately, that's the latest bit of bad news for the franchise reboot following a plethora of negative reviews (the film currently stands at 10 percent on Rotten Tomatoes). This arguably marks the weakest preview/midnight gross for a supposed A-list comic book adaptation in era when they've become fairly reliable and predictable. By comparison, last night's earnings were over 20 percent less than Green Lantern's $3.4 million in June 2011 -- and that film didn't begin shows until midnight.

At this current pace, and with word of mouth expected to quickly sour audience interest, the Fantastic Four reboot might struggle to reach a $25-30 million opening weekend (the low end of that range based on using Ant-Man's recent Thursday-to-weekend ratio). If that holds, last week's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation could pull off an unexpected repeat finish in first place for its sophomore frame.

OldBoy

i hope The Gift does business. it is well worth it...

RichC2

A $2.7m doesn't bode well for Fantastic Four, but by the same note it's kind of unfair to compare it with a midnight opening (It's like saying Jurassic World was a disappointment because it pulled $18.5m on Thursday, nowhere close to Harry Potter 8's $43.5m (a midnight opening)).

But alas, what would this movie be if not for constant negative press in every way shape and form.

TheMovieman

Fantastic Four is looking like about a $30M OW. The Gift and Ricki and The Flash about $8.5M and $8M respectively.

http://variety.com/2015/film/box-off...ce-1201559318/

RichC2

Deadline has The Gift at $10 - $12m and $7.5m for Ricki/Flash

TheMovieman

Still a crummy weekend esp for Fantastic Four. Any bets Fox will negotiate with Marvel or will they be stubborn and in a last ditch effort fold them into X-Men?

OldBoy

man, The Gift is fantastic. it was probably made on the cheap, but this deserves better imo...

RichC2

It had a $5m budget. If Joel Edgerton wanted to get his foot in the director's door, I'd say he was very successful.

fumanstan

Pretty big drop in estimates for FF given what was originally predicted. Even with the bad reviews, i'm actually a little surprised it might come in that low.

OldBoy

Well, that is a different story. Yes, very successful. I do think the estimates are a little low though. I had a decent crowd at 12.

B5Erik

Really? I'm not the least bit surprised

I've been predicting a $35 - $40 Million opening weekend for the last couple of weeks (followed by a 65% + drop next weekend).

Word of mouth is terrible, the reviews are terrible, and the promotion for the movie has been middling at best.

Fox blew it big time on this one.

The Antipodean

It gets worse: Deadline -

UPDATED, Friday 11:53 PM: It is a two-way race for the No. 1 spot this weekend as Fantastic Four from Fox is falling flat on its face … like a dying fish, flopping … and in more ways than one. It only garnered a C- CinemaScore tonight, too, as it’s core audience is turning up its nose. Tracking had it anywhere between $40M and $50M and the reality is that it’s now estimated in the high $20M range and, sadly, may lose to the second weekend of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. How embarrassing. No wonder FF‘s director Josh Trank wanted to distance himself. Critics hated it … perhaps it’s because the Thing reminds moviegoers of the Toxic Avenger.

TomOpus

Wow.

DaveyJoe

Not a chance because Fox hates this property, and every comic book reader that has ever enjoyed it.

fumanstan

Well of course you're not surprised given your posts here about the movie. Your predictions weren't really far off from the industries initial estimates though, and it seems like it's going to come in even worse then that. Bad movies beat box office expectations all the time, so even with all the bad press and word of mouth I expected it to be close to the estimates on opening weekend rather then fall all the way to the 20's.

DaveyJoe

He warned us, Fox's Fantastic Four is doomed. DOOMED.

Why So Blu?

I read it said it made 11 million Friday.

TheMovieman

That includes $2.7M Thursday #s, so $8.6M for Friday.

Why So Blu?

Daaaaaaamn!

james2025a

No Blu, I said it. I predicted $29 million for the weekend. I was amazed tracking was putting it much higher. Soooo glad it's failed so much. Marvel must love seeing Fox take the hit.

DaveyJoe

Marvel fanboys love it, I'm sure. But I doubt Marvel the company enjoys seeing their characters in such a poorly perceived product. Doesn't Marvel still get a cut from merchandising?

DthRdrX

They'll live. They want their property back first and foremost.

DaveyJoe

They want money, first and foremost. They're happy to collect merchandising fees when other properties are successful. When comic book movies start to decline in sales they'll probably start wrapping the posters in special gold foil. We're talking about the industry that conducted a phone poll on whether or not to kill off a child character. They want a potential cash cow back, not the beloved characters they sold off in the first place.

DthRdrX

Of course they want money first. That's why they want the property back. They make peanuts off the other studios compared to what they can make on their own.

As for Fantastic Four, I bet Marvel is smart enough to not even use them for a long time. With the Fantastic Four franchise they would get back three of the biggest rogues: Doom, Galactus, and Kang, all of which could keep the Avengers/GOTG going for a while.

Solid Snake

Doom, Galactus, Kang, and Uatu are 4 great characters stuck w/ Fox.

Superskrull is w/ them too. Funny how Marvel kept the race but Superskrull stayed w/ Fox.

Is Annihilus stuck there too?