What the hell Is Twentieth Century Fox doing?
To say the studio owes a lot to the X-Men franchise is an understatement. Most of the various X-films 20th Century Fox has released have been commercial successes that were equally well received by fans. While it would be hyperbole to claim that’s Fox’s “X-verse” was on par with Disney’s MCU, there was usually an X film somewhere in any given year’s top ten grossing movies (Deadpool 2, for instance, was the ninth highest grossing movie on the entire planet in 2018). It’s safe to say that if it hadn’t been for Marvel’s Merry Mutants, Fox likely would have closed up shop years ago.
Which is why it’s so disappointing to see the studio treat the X-franchise so poorly before handing it off to Disney.
Let’s start with Dark Phoenix, the seventh and final X-Men movie under Fox’s stewardship. When we finally saw a trailer for the long awaited, often delayed film, many fans found it underwhelming to say the least. Especially when you consider that the reshoots that have forced Phoenix’s release date to be be pushed back twice (originally scheduled for release on November 2nd, 2018, Fox moved it first to Valentine’s Day and then to June 7th of this year) have driven the film’s production budget as high as 200 million.
Even the people who liked the trailers (and there are some) have to wonder where all that money went, because so far Dark Phoenix doesn’t even remotely look like a movie with that kind of money behind it. Your talking about Avengers and Star Wars kind of money, and Phoenix doesn’t look remotely like it’s anywhere near that kind of scale (though it should be given the story it’s telling).
And when you consider the talent this movie has collected (there’s more than a few Oscars among the likes of Michael Fassbender, James McCoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain) that trailer looked like it was strictly B material at best.
And that’s the last foot any movie wants to put forward.
It wouldn’t be wrong to label this movie’s box office chances dubious at best. Phoenix is currently scheduled to come out the same weekend as The Secret Life of Pets 2, the week after Godzilla: King of the Monsters and the Elton John bio-pic Rocketman, a week before Sony’s new Men In Black movie and just two weeks before Toy Story 4. Forget Jean Grey’s death, Dark Phoenix may be staring at certain doom sitting on that particular murderer’s row.
None of that considers how much appetite movie goers may have for potentially sub-par super hero fare after Captain Marvel, Shazam!and Avengers 4 (which will probably still be playing when Phoenix drops).
Barring a miracle there is little chance Phoenix succeeds as much as it needs to financially (especially given the film’s obscene production budget). So the question is, why didn’t Fox keep it in February? The deck is stacked against Dark Phoenix being a success in the heart of summer movie season, but it’s odds in February are much stronger and Disney doesn’t have anything hitting the big screen until Captain Marvel arrives the second weekend of March. So why Fox’s rush to kill it?
And when was the last time you heard anything about Fox’s other ‘X’ movie, New Mutants? After changing it’s release date three times, New Mutants is currently scheduled to be released August 2nd of this year. But Disney apparently has such little faith in the “finished” product that it may movie it again or just forego Cineplexes altogether and throw it on a streaming service. And rumour is that nearly half of that movie underwent extensive, expensive reshoots of its own as well.
Then there’s Deadpool. Here’s hoping Disney keeps it hands off the Merc with a Mouth and lets Ryan Reynolds and company continue on their current path, because the graphic violence and obscenity are just as important to the spirit of this franchise as the absurdity and action (seriously, that fight between Colossus and Juggernaut kicked ass).
So when Fox made a PG-13 version suitable for family consumption entitled Once Upon A Deadpool and released it at Christmas, more than a few people were left scratching their heads and asking “why?” After all, once you cut out enough of the violence and obscenity to earn a PG-13 rating, what’s left other than the credits? While the trailers were more than a little amusing, fans and audiences soundly rejected Once Upon A Deadpool, which turned out to be an expensive failure.
It certainly feels like Fox has been bungling its last two X movies on purpose and was deliberately trying to neuter the Deadpool brand, stripping the character of everything that makes it unique and appealing. A lot of people have pointed their fingers at Disney, who should finish crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s on it’s pricey acquisition of Fox later this spring.
Except when Deadpool 2 came out last May, the Disney deal was already entering its final stages and it’s fair to say the two studios were already dancing (at least enough to know they were serious) when all three movies were in various stages of production. So sabotaging the X properties makes little sense, especially when Disney is eager to incorporate said properties into the uber-successful MCU.
(And while that is a convenient conspiracy theory, Disney is a publicly traded corporation responsible to countless stock holders. That kind of strategy would have cost Disney hundreds of millions of dollars on top of the seventy plus billion it shelled out to purchase Fox. Suffice to say that wouldn’t have gone over well at the next share holders meeting.)
Rumour also has that Disney will be running a Hunger Games kind of scenario for its new employees, using merit to determine who stays and who goes when it combines the two work forces into one cohesive Hollywood powerhouse. How much of an anchor would working on Dark Phoenix or New Mutants be on someone’s resume if you made any decision that lead to their inevitable, pricey failure? Does anyone want to carry that kind of professional baggage into that kind of employment Battle Royal?
It’s disappointing since, for the most part, Fox has done a great job with the X titles and owes so much to the franchise. There were some missteps and flops to be sure, but the first two films in the original X-Men trilogy, First Class, Days of Future Past, Logan and both Deadpool films were all great movies. Fox’s success with the X-Men franchise is largely responsible for the era of comic book blockbusters we’re enjoying today.
Fox also owes a lot to the X-Men franchise’s success. It’s estimated the 11 X-movies have grossed over 5.7 billion dollars worldwide. Without the revenue and franchise cred the Children of the Atom brought the studio over the past 18 years, Fox probably would have had to put up the Going Out Of Business sign years ago. Make no mistake, there are a lot of execs who collected fat bonus cheques because of these films.
Now it feels like they’re going out of their way to treat the franchise as shabbily as they can on their way out. Apparently five plus billion doesn’t buy a lot of loyalty. It’s like firing your best employees just before you retire.
And not even giving them so much as a handshake on their way out.
This franchise deserves so much better. Here’s hoping Disney treats it with the respect and dignity it has earned.
Image 20th Century Fox
