There are no fewer than four comic book movies coming out between April and August. Captain America: The Winter Soldier has grossed four times its budget, while The Amazing Spider-Man 2 might be hinting at Spidey fatigue. So what about the Merry Mutant Marching Society?
Currently, things look good for the mutants: Variety claims the movie’s on track to break box office records. But, of course, nothing is certain, and there are a few factors that might ding it.
Quality
First and foremost, if the movie stinks, then it’s probably not going to last very long. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 didn’t do well with audiences and might be out of theaters before the beginning of June, for example. That seems unlikely, though; Singer is a solid director, and Fox appears to be throwing everything in the franchise at the wall for a massive blowout.
Scandals
The other factor is whether or not Singer’s lawsuit gets any media traction. For those unfamiliar, he’s being accused of sexually assaulting a teenager fifteen years ago in a civil suit. A second similar lawsuit has also been filed, and Singer, while of course denying it, has quietly dropped out of any press obligations.
Honestly, though, Singer isn’t Woody Allen. The suits might have a severe impact on his career going forward, but it won’t have much of an effect on this movie.
Exhaustion
Finally, there’s the question of exhaustion. Truthfully, the X-Men have never made the money that other Marvel franchises rake in: Just check out the series’ history at the box office; it’s yet to crack $500 million worldwide at the box office unless you adjust the numbers for inflation. The audience is oddly limited even as Marvel itself has collected billions, and that might work against the mutants.
But hey, we’ll know for sure May 23rd. If nothing else, Magneto dropping a stadium on the police should be good for $100 million.