This year seems to be providing an interesting sample size that an opening weekend for a super hero movie will be big regardless of what movie reviewers say about it. This was first the case with BATMAN V. SUPERMAN in March and now X-MEN: APOCALYPSE is defying its mixed bag of reviews.
As of right now, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE has a score of 47-percent on RottenTomatoes making it Fox's second worst reviewed X-Men movie on RottenTomatoes right above X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (38-percent) and behind the widely loathed X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (58-percent).
Fans are ignoring the low review scores as they flooded theaters on Thursday night for its domestic premiere to the tune of bringing in $8.2 million in box office grosses, via TheWrap. When you compare this number to the $8.1M its predecessor X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST brought in on its Thursday night release it looks like X-MEN: APOCALYPSE could match the $90M domestic opening that Days of Future Past had two years ago.
Going into this holiday weekend, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE was projecting an $85M opening weekend, which does not account for the extended part of this weekend since Monday is Memorial Day and another big moneymaking day for movie releases this weekend. X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST brought in $110M in its extended domestic weekend and X-MEN: APOCALYPSE could breach the $100M 4-day opening weekend mark too, after its promising start on Thursday night.
Which brings the all-too-early question of if X-MEN: APOCALYPSE can sustain its success beyond its opening weekend or will it have a big drop-off. Bad reviews may not prevent fans from seeing a highly anticipated movie for themselves on opening weekend, but it could lead to a big second weekend drop as moviegoers might be less inclined to go back for a second helping.
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