20th Century Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot is being killed at the box office before it even gets going. Beset by bad press, awful reviews and a director already disowning it, the film only grossed $2.7 million from Thursday night screenings.
If word-of-mouth quickly hurts the film’s box office chances, the movie is looking at an opening even less than Ant-Man’s. Pro.boxoffice.com suggests that it could have trouble reaching $30 million by the end of Sunday.
Ant-Man, which at least earned some good reviews as it hit theaters, started its box office run with a $6.4 million Thursday night. It went on to make $58 million over its first weekend.
Fantastic Four (reviewed here) comes eight years after the second film in Fox’s first FF series was also a dud at the box office. The new one was directed by Josh Trank, who tweeted last night that the film’s bad reviews are due to Fox’s meddling in the film. FF’s Rotten Tomatoes critics rating currently stands at just 10 percent.
While FF’s failure will grab all the headlines, there are still three other new movies hitting theaters this weekend. The Gift (reviewed here), a thriller directed by and starring Joel Edgerton with Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall, grossed $585,000 Thursday night. Meryl Streep’s Ricki and the Flash earned $200,000.
Shaun the Sheep, the latest from beloved animation house Aardman, has already been in theaters for two days, grossing $1.567 million so far.
But can any of these films top Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation? That film opened to $56 million last weekend.
image of ‘Fantastic Four’ cast courtesy of Roger Wong/INFphoto.com