The Fox X-Men franchise had some ups and downs, but one of the biggest discrepancies from its run occurred between X-Men: Dark Phoenix

and The New Mutants

. When Fox began releasing X-Men movies back in 2000, the studio found extraordinary success with their hit comic book movies. Beyond resonating with audiences and bringing in plenty of money, the films also introduced a handful of actors who became iconic in their roles, such as Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and Patrick Stewart as Professor X.

However, as the series began to wind down, and the MCU’s popularity overtook them by a wide margin, Fox scrambled to stay relevant. After a floundering Wolverine trilogy, they once again found success with the rebooted universe, and released an all-time greatest hit with X-Men: Days of Future Past, but things didn’t necessarily stay on course for Fox. And ultimately, this led to the final two films from the studio becoming some of the worst-received, and most spectacular, financial failures of the entire series.

Dark Phoenix Is One Of The Most Controversial Movies In Fox’s X-Men Roster

Dark Phoenix Took The Reboot Franchise To A Weird Conclusion

Dark Phoenix, the fourth and final entry in the reboot series, was not well-received upon its initial release in 2019. With Disney acquiring Fox, and the film repeating a story that played out in X-Men: The Last Stand in a less committed way, it felt like an odd choice to conclude the series. And ultimately, the film stands out as the worst-rated тιтle from Fox’s X-Men Universe of all time. At just a 22% score from critics, the film was widely picked apart and critiqued.

And, to be fair, many of the criticisms make sense. Now, despite that, the audience felt differently, with the movie getting a rather respectable 64% score from audiences after release (via Rotten Tomatoes). Evidently, as there often is, there was a disconnect between the professional critics’ opinions and the audiences. With many reviewers frustrated at the lack of what the movie failed to accomplish, what it repeated from past entries, and the disengaged cast. However, audiences appear satisfied with the intense action, the epic-scale story, and the final chapter stands out as a fairly OK entry, which is further evidenced by the box office return of the controversial film.

Dark Phoenix Still Made Over Five Times The New Mutants’ Worldwide Box Office

The New Mutants Is Marvel’s Worst Box Office Performer Of All Time

Dark Phoenix earned a not insignificant $246 million. This may seem small when stacked against other superhero releases that range anywhere from $500 million to nearly $3 billion, but the reality is that for the Fox X-Men universe, this was only slightly behind movies like X-Men, X-Men: First Class, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (via The Numbers). Meanwhile, The New Mutants, which released one year later in 2020, earned just $47 million, which means it comes in as the lowest-earning film of that series by a long sH๏τ. In fact, it’s the lowest theatrically released Marvel movie ever made.

Even when taking a closer look at the figures and seeing the production budgets alongside the total box office, The New Mutants significantly underperformed compared to Dark Phoenix. While Dark Phoenix got a much larger budget of roughly three times the size of The New Mutants, the film only managed to earn roughly $45 million more, and that is not accounting for the marketing behind the movie, which likely put the total earnings back in the red. But The New Mutants didn’t manage to break even on that figure.

Why Dark Phoenix Made So Much More Than The New Mutants

Fox Prioritized Dark Phoenix Mᴀssively Compared To The New Mutants

However, while there is a stark difference in total earnings, there are also clear reasons behind the total take-home figures. The thing is, Dark Phoenix wrapped up a four-part series with a cast that became beloved. Despite negative reviews, the movie had a built-in fanbase, and the release was much more pleasantly received by audiences as opposed to critics. It still underperformed, and it lost the studio money, but the result is not a catastrophic failure. This was also likely aided by the investment in marketing the movie, which The New Mutants did not get.

The issue with The New Mutants is that the movie actually finished filming in 2017. While there were plans to return and get some reshoots done, the deal with Disney acquiring Fox was already underway, and The New Mutants fell to the wayside in terms of importance. Then, after nearly three years sitting on the shelf, the studio decided to release the movie, with a substandard cut of the story, and minimal marketing. While The New Mutants had an exciting premise, and it could have established a new superhero team earlier in the Fox X-Men universe, it came at the wrong time, and the box office suffered because of it.

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