X-Men: Days of Future Past is expected to have a great Memorial Day weekend and got its box office run started with a great Thursday night opening. The 20th Century Fox film is expected to get past $100 million over the weekend.
Days of Future Past opened at around 2,900 locations last night, grossing $8.1 million, notes TheWrap. While that’s certainly a good number, it is short of Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s $10.2 million start. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 also launched with a bit more, starting with $8.7 million.
The best news for Fox is that it is twice as much as the previous best early X-Men opening, set by last year’s The Wolverine. That movie launched with just $4 million.
Days of Future Past boasts a huge cast that brings together the First Class stars (Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence) with the stars of the original X-Men films (Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman and more). Bryan Singer returned at the helm.
Box Office Mojo is predicting a three-day opening that is a hair under $100 million. It should reach $120 million over the four-day weekend.
The only other wide release this weekend is Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore’s Blended, which may struggle to reach $30 million. After all, Godzilla is still expected to have a big second weekend. It should make around $40 million.