The debut of “Dark Phoenix” has been characterized by mixed reviews and a disastrous box office, with the latest film in the “X-Men” franchise bringing in a meagre $33 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend.
Not only is this a new low for an “X-Men” film, it also marks the first time one of the franchise’s movies didn’t open at #1 at the domestic box office (things were a bit better overseas, where “Dark Phoenix” took the top spot at the international box office with $107 million, combining for a worldwide total of $140 million).
Given the film’s reported $200 million budget, however, words like “bomb” and “flop” are being tossed around, and the movie’s director is taking full responsibility for the box office failure.
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“I’m here, I’m saying when a movie doesn’t work, put it on me,” “Dark Phoenix” director Simon Kinberg tells KCRW’s “The Business”.
”I’m the writer-director,” he continues, “the movie didn’t connect with audiences, that’s on me.”
That being said, Kinberg insists he had no regrets about the film he made. “I actually really like the movie, [and] I had an amazing time making the movie,” he says.
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While some have blamed such factors as changing release dates and corporate turmoil as the movie’s studio, Fox, merged with Disney, Kinberg doesn’t want to add to the speculation.
“I mean honestly, there’s no way to know,” he adds. “And that’s the thing that I think can drive people crazy and keep them up and be thinking about a movie’s failure years later. If the lesson you’ve learned is that you had the wrong date or you didn’t have good marketing — that’s not a lesson.”
