X-MEN: FIRST CLASS - Grading+Discussion **SPOILERS!**

Finally saw it.

It's FANTASTIC. SOOOOO much better than X3. I won't bother knocking X3, as it's not worth the time and effort--it's that bad.

FC, great. Vaughn did not disappoint. My wife, who is NOT an action fan, didn't want to like it, but, she LOVED it. It's a great ride.

 

X-Men: First Class also managed to have another great weekend. It's following in Thor's lead and is yet to have a weekend drop of over 60%, this week was only 52%. XM:FC hauled in another $11.5m to bring it's domestic total up to $119.9m. I'm hoping for a sight uptick with actuals for a nice clean $120m.

 

It's also worth noting that Green Lantern, with a production budget that was $40 million more than First Class's, and showing on more screens (including 3-D presentations), debuted to a lower opening weekend and much worse reviews than First Class did.

 

I blame the CGI suit.

 

Well worldwide takings for X-Men: First Class stand at (according to boxofficemojo)

Domestic US$119.925m (42.5%)
Foriegn US$162.100m (57.5%)

Total US$282.025m

Of course other movies are coming out now which might have a knock on effect, so my guess for the final takings will be in the US$300m to US$320m

Which I think would be good enough for their to be a sequel.

 

Yay! I saw a few box office numbers that said Green Lantern wasn't doing well. Yes, GL has serious merchandising and 3D returns, but bad CGI and poor reviews are hurting that one. Also, I think there might be some comic book or superhero burnout for GL at this point with a few of these comic films out the gate before hand.

I'm glad X-Men is still having some consistent numbers, even though it now has less showings and theater times thanks to the new stuff premiering. I do indeed hope the numbers and praise are worthy of a sequel. I've been thinking maybe an August announcement- after it is out of theaters and a video date is given.

 

I think First Class DVD sales will be strong as well. I would hazard a guess that a sequel announcement won't come from Fox until next year. After they've had time to analyze the box office numbers and the DVD sales numbers and then talked to Singer and Vaughn about ideas.

 

Yeah, awards season could make a huge difference if Fassbender or Lawrence get acclaim for other films. I think the videos will do really will simply because it is a dang tangible purchase for this film.

Green Lantern is on dang cereal boxes in the grocery store. Really, I need that decapitated mini mate for my Christmas ornament. And a Fassy pillowcase to match my Bean one!

 

Even if projected DVD/Blu-ray sales/rentals are say 75% of X-Men, that should be enough to commission a sequel. though I would expect it to have a smaller budget.

 

The movie did get an uptick with actuals, due to Fathers Day according to the analysis (same reason GL's actual went back up after going down).

X-Men now has $120.3m and had a third weekend drop of just over 50%, it's holding well. Closing in on $300m worldwide as well!!

 

Great film. But I think there's going to be a renaissance of Magneto/Xavier slash fiction. Rivaling Kirk/Spock for sure.

 

I still think Fox is going to wait on making an announcement about a sequel. Matthew Vaughn does have a couple projects down the pipe he is eying right now. Although if Fox green lights a sequel maybe he will push those back in favor of a X-Men First class sequel. We could be looking at a "Chronicles of Narnia: Magician's Nephew" style wait here.

 

They'll do The Wolverine first, since FOX finally found a director for it. After that... who knows?

 

Well of course they'll do "The Wolverine" first. Fox has already stated that it's still targeting a release for next year. If "X-Men: First Class 2" gets green lit we probably won't see it until 2013 at the earliest.

 

Which really makes me wonder how arrogant Fox is really... Or they're just plain nuts. 2012 is already swarming with competition - The Avengers and MiB3 in May, Prometheus and Star Trek XII in June (though I doubt it), Spiderman reboot and The Dark Knight Rises in July, Totall Recall remake in August, the new Bond in October, a new Twilight movie in November, Man of Steel and The Hobbit in December...

Holy cow... Well, if McQuarrie's script really IS as good as some people say, then maybe Wolverine stands a chance... James Mangold is a good director (IMO better than Aronofsky), and people do love High Jackman... But still, releasing a new instalment of a shaken franchise (lets not fool ourselves, FC is by far the least successful X-Men movie to date) in a year in which 6 major franchises return to the cinemas... We'll see...

 

Yeah. It might be smarter to release The Wolverine in 2013 and (presumably) a follow-up to First Class in 2014. But Fox has a tendency to rush their X-films.

 

I wouldn't rule out a "X4" either in either 2013 or 14, especially if Fox can get Singer aboard as director. It's pretty clear that he does want to direct a future film at some point.

How is Fox being "arrogant" with wanting to release "The Wolverine" next year? It doesn't have a slot yet to my knowledge. It could merely be a case of the studio being confident of the script, director, and star. The last one was a critical disaster but the McQuarrie script has had rave things said about it. The same could be said for those other studios having their big movies set for release in one of the potentially BIGGEST blockbuster movie years of all time. I don't think it's "arrogance" at all and believe me I'm not a Fox supporter or anything.

 

There's a very fine line between confidence and arrogance, I think. But considering how popular High Jackman's Wolverine used to be (it literally made his career), Fox really shouldn't have a problem selling it (with the right marketing, and some positive word of mouth once the film is out, provided that it really is as good as we hope it'll be).

But as you said, 2012 is potentially one of the BIGGEST blockbuster movie years of all time, and not everyone will come out a winner. Some of these movies are sure to under perform due the stiff competition, and my guess is it sure as hell won't be Batman, Bond, Twilight and especially not The Hobbit. Superman, on the other hand, could end up being a major disaster if they screw it up (but I'm cautiously optimistic about it).

 

Well if the world ends in 2012 we might not see all those movies!

I'm not sure what to think here. If Wolverine won't stand a chance in a packed year, how would a First Class sequel? Yet, considering the successful but considered soft box office of this one, you might think they'd rush the next one here before folks forget about it amid all the other comic book movies. Then again, if Wolverine does less than First Class, then they would in hindsight know they should have gone with 'Second Class'.

Who the heck knows? Fassbender so far is now out of the Trance film and McAvoy is in. However after the Jim Jarmusch vampire film, MF isn't signed on for anything else. Is he keeping his schedule clear for a reason after signing onto something like 6 projects in rapid succession? We know they are all contracted for 2 more films. Wonder if they would shoot them back to back?

And ugh, sidenote, I saw an MTV interview with Zoe joking there would be an Angel solo movie. <roll> Besides, what in the heck would you call a First Class sequel? Has anyone come up with anything good? See, this is why it is easier to focus elsewhere and call it Brotherhood of Mutants.

I need to find time to see this again! Times are getting really reduced now. How long will it even be in theaters?

 

As I said the earliest we would get a First Class sequel is 2013 which is not packed yet and it would have room to breath in. There's no way we're getting as sequel next year. They'd have to green light now and basically start casting and production in the next couple of months. That's not going to happen.

People here having been using "X-Men Second Class" lol which is pathetic in my opinion. I'm betting a sequel title will be called something else entirely. Anyways still too early to talk about this in my opinion. All I know is that the franchise is not dead yet and to my knowledge there are no plans to reboot anything (except Deadpool).