‘Dark Phoenix’ is the worst-reviewed X-Men movie of all time, but the international box office could save it

Fox

"Dark Phoenix" has the worst Rotten Tomatoes score of any X-Men movie ever, but if the franchise trend continues, that might not matter when it comes to box-office performance.
Outside of three titles (the first two "X-Men" releases and "X-Men: The Last Stand"), every other X-Men release has made more money internationally than it did domestically.
It has likely played a major factor in the length of the franchise.
And if "Dark Phoenix" does the same, it may make Disney (the new owner of the IP following its acquisition of Fox) have to speed up its plans to release future titles in the franchise.
Here’s a breakdown of how all 9 X-Men movies have performed at the international box office.
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With a 21% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, "Dark Phoenix," the 10th movie in the X-Men franchise, is the worst-reviewed movie in the 20-year history of theatrical releases of the Marvel characters.

The general thinking is it’s finally time to take a break from these superheroes, especially seeing that they are now owned by Disney following the studio’s acquisition of Fox (which had the rights to the X-Men IP), and it will take time to implement them into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But that might not be so easy if the box office for "Dark Phoenix" continues the trend of the franchise.

Though audiences (and critics) domestically have X-Men fatigue, internationally it’s a different story.

Outside of three X-Men movies, the rest have performed better internationally than domestically. That’s a huge reason why a studio will continue a franchise (it’s why "Terminator" movies keep getting made). With the production budgets of these movies at $100-million-plus (only two, "X-Men" and "Logan," were under that mark), international sales play a big part in making money off the IP.

If "Dark Phoenix" does the same, it may force Disney to speed up plans to get another X-Men movie out to moviegoers (or actually release "The New Mutants" in 2020, which is the current release date for the next X-Men title, but has been delayed to theaters numerous times).

Here’s a breakdown of the international box office grosses for the 9 X-Men movies from worst to best (we’ve intentionally left the "Deadpool" movies off the list; don’t worry, he won’t mind):

Note: All grosses are taken from Box Office Mojo.