Looking at the nine-film mutant franchise that Fox has had over the past 16 years, Apocalypse had the sixth best opening weekend. In terms of actual tickets sold, it ranks seventh out of nine. The new PG-13 film sold approximately 25% fewer tickets on opening weekend than the first X-Men in July of 2000.

Reviews for the new mutant saga were not too strong and were a far cry from the raves received by DOFP. Also, movie fans have already spent over $1 billion on a trio of comic book movies this year so some may not have felt the need for a fourth one in under five months. Studio data showed that the audience was 62% male and 55% over 25. Despite five major roles for women in the cast, the female share of the crowd was relatively low. The CinemaScore grade was a good A-.

Johnny Depp's career met with another setback this weekend with the disastrous performance of his latest big-paycheck project Alice Through the Looking Glass which bowed to only $28.1M over three days, according to estimates. That represents a staggering 76% plunge from the opening weekend of 2010's Alice in Wonderland which was a monster 3D hit grossing over $1 billion globally prompting those involved to get another installment made. Audiences were not part of that discussion as consumer interest was never very high for this new chapter despite a pricey marketing push over the last several weeks.