The lowest-grossing X-Men movie was The Wolverine with $132 million, emphasis on the word “was.” That unwanted record is now set by Dark Phoenix, which has only eked out $60 million during its first three weeks of release. That figure isn’t going to grow much higher, either: the film, which received lukewarm at best reviews, is already being pulled from theaters. “Fire extinguished,” Exhibitor Relations tweeted. “X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX will lose 1,667 theaters (-44%) in just its 3rd week of release.” Not great, Bob.
Director Simon Kinberg is taking the blame for Dark Phoenix‘s lack of success, saying, “it didn’t connect enough with audiences that did see it,” but maybe things would have been different if they (they being Kinberg, the producers, everyone but Jennifer Lawrence, who’d probably doesn’t want to be associated with the movie) went with the original images for Jean Grey’s transformation.
“Jean Grey Blasting Off into Space. This shot for the final sequence was changed a bit in the released film,” Dark Phoenix concept artist Houston Sharp (who also worked on Wonder Woman) shared on his Instagram. A lot was changed during re-shoots for the “final sequence” of the movie, in order to avoid having a similar ending as some recent superhero flicks. The art Sharp shared shows Jean, played by Sophie Turner, in her final form as a fiery phoenix. It looks much better than in the actual movie. It’s also similar to Carol Danvers after she “turns binary,” which considering Captain Marvel made over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, maybe that wouldn’t have been a bad idea.
This concept art is, in a word, lit.
(Via Instagram)