X-Men Origins Wolverine has driven the first tentpole of the summer into the ground kicking off the Summer Blockbuster Season and dominated the boxoffice with an $87million opening weekend.
The action adventure, starring Hugh Jackman as the heroic Wolverine who wields long claws as his weapons, raked in $87 million in the United States and Canada and helped push total ticket sales just slightly ahead of the same weekend last year
John had guessed a $80-90m weekend and I resisted throwing a guess in as I suck at that kind of estimating game. I also suck at guessing people’s age too. I would be a horrible carnival attraction operator.
The World Wide totals came up to $160million which more than covers its $130m budget. This also places it as the second highest opening for an X-Men film after X3: The Last Stand opened to $102m.
Last year’s Iron Man hit the scene at $99million to kick off the season with solid expectations. I am actually impressed that Wolverine came close with all the poor reviews, and the fiasco of the leaked workprint.
However unlike Ironman, I don’t suspect that Wolverine will have any staying power for the weeks to come. Considering Star Trek is being released this coming weekend, I don’t know that it stood a chance anyways.
Wolverine was SO good when it was good, but so very bad when it was bad that it was hard to love it.
Wolverine was the wost SuperHero movie, ever..why, it had so much more to pull from and gave less overall and it cost so freaking much..I just saw the new Star Trek movie, and it kicked ASS and cost less than half to make.
Wolverine was even worse than Electra, and that’s pretty bad.
I love comics, and this movie just bit the big one.
Any comments on the multiple stinger endings? There are supposdly four, and the reason for the last minute reshoots. The one I saw was Logan in a bar “drinking to remember.” Yeah, kinda lame. My buddy saw Weapon XI put his head back on and open his eyes and go “shhh…” as his mouth was ripped open. Anyone see the other two?
My Top Five reasons X-men 3 was better than Wolverine Origins:
1. as bad as it was, X3 actually had a plot that you could follow with one scene leading directly into the next. Origins was nothing but a series of random events in Wolverine’s life strung together with barely a rhyme, reason or any context.
2. At least X3 had villains we liked and even may have cared about: Magneto, Mystique, ect.
Who exactly were the main villains in Wolverine again and why did we care?
3. With all the problems people had with X3’s story you didn’t hear much complaining about new characters. Most people seemed to like how they did Juggernaut, Beast, ect. Does anyone like the interpretations of Origins new characters?
4. When the makers of X3 realized they weren’t going to have the budget to do X2’s special effects they decided to use as many practical efects as possible instead. ie. Wire work stunts, real claws.
Wolverine origins decided instead to do a rush job with cheap looking half-assed CGI that looked 12 years out of date. X3’s effects may have looked cheaper but at least they looked more “realistic”.
5. After Tom Rothman & FOX cut the budget of X3, X3 looked exactly like it cost that amount to make and not a penny more.
Origins cost $150 MILLION? dollars to make and for the life of me I can’t figure out where the Hell all that money went!!!
It didn’t go to the talent because Halle Berry wasn’t here this time to demand a zillion dollars and all but Hugh Jackman were not high dollar talent.
It is upsetting that the good X-Men films ie. 1 & 2 didn’t open as big and X-2 and X-2 opened so high. Although if remember X-2 opened at 82 million so it was pretty close to wolverine.
Movie theaters make about .50 cents on the dollar.
They get about half of the ticket price. But the rape the shit out of you with concesions.
BTW, did anyone see the Quicksilver, Toad and Banshee cameos? Banshee is the kid in the first cage with red hair and a muzzle of his mouth. Who the else could it be??
Yeah I thought that was quicksilver he was bouncing aroun in his cage, right?
That could have been Richtor trying to shake himself free.
I thought is was good but I can see some people not liking it if you don’t know your x-men history. It is one I need to see a couple times to catch anything.
Now the ending I saw was Styker (SP?) getting arrested, what are the others can someone list them.
trek is gonna bury wolverine.
I loved the movie. It was everything that I was expecting and hoped for.
But the real question is what people’s thoughts were on how Gambit was? Since he was character that everyone was waiting to see on screen.
This deadpool was very faithful to the comic book deadpool. This movie shows deadpool in weapon x when hes controlled by striker, we havent gotten to the whole mask/merc with a mouth thing just yet
I now own the comic book when deadpool and wolverine are in weapon x and its basically the same thing only that deadpool wears this weird white and black suit and then later after weapon x gets his traditional one
The only thing that was not like the comic book is that he had swords in his wrists and the cyclops beam…the sewing mouth thing is something striker did to him in weapon x…we havent seen the real deadpool in the movie theatres yet
wade wilson looks like ryan reynolds in the comic books, or like tom cruise
weapon x deadpool wears black white and some red
and the original deadpool we all know that has NOT been portrayed in a movie EVER is the one that wears the usual red and black known deadpool uniform
Weapon XI was the disfigured guy with the sewed mouth, not deadpool
Ryan Reynolds played Wade Wilson, he didnt play Weapon XI. Scott Adkins played weapon XI (The guy that teleported and shot beams out of his eyes?)
Well hes weapon XI, the weapon x version of deadpool…
Heres a picture of XI…who will eventually become deadpool:
http://www.thecomicfanatic.com/new%20images/wolorig35.jpg
Unless i saw a different film, it appeared that “Wade Wilson” was reborn in the film as the guy with optic blasts and blades in his arms… which was dumb as shit. (Wolvie even says “Wade? Is that you?”)
Wade Wilson was a mercenary. He developed cancer and the Weapon X project said they could provide a cure… which was an attempt to recreate wolverine’s healing factor by extracting a smaple of Wolverines DNA/cells and injecting it into Wilson (Who at times was dubbed Weapon XI). It cured him, but his constantly “regenerating” cells caused him to look all disfigured (kinda like a burn victim). He was also subject to physical torture/experiments to test his abilities. As a result he went kinda nuts.
So, while always kinda smart ass and talkative, he was now just f*cked in the head too.
I DONT KNOW WHY, in the movie, they made him some super experiment… and SEALED his mouth?!? (um… Merc with the Mouth, anyone?) They easily could have credated “The Mimic” (An Xman villian who could mimic the powers of other mutants) or Weapon XIII. To me they were just lazy and fucked up the Deadpool character.
Also, HAZMAT, that picture is a picture of DAKEN, Wolverines son… (Not Weapon XI / Deadpool)
Overall i say this film was like a 5.5/10. The barely touched on his history (more stuff from the far past would have been nice.) And they glossed over the whole Weapon X/Memory Alteration/Cyber helmet phase which should have been MOST of the film. And they didnt include ANY of his time in the far east. So while this film was by no means terrible, it was a bit disappointing for me, mainly because i feel they missed quite a few opportunities to make this something really special.
And, yes, the guy (Weapon XI) at the end WAS indeed played by a different actor, but i think it was the films intention for it to still be “Wade Wilson / Deadpool” just the Weapon XI version…
And why was Kayla SilverFox’s sister in the film Emma Frost???
Just ANOTHER was to JAM in a popular mutant with no regard for good writing, story, OR comic book history.
I am betting the next X-Franchise film will simply be Proffessor X rolling down the road for 120 minutes with random mutants jumping out, shouting their name, using their power, and then running away…
“Hey Charles, it me… BISHOP… ZZZZAP! See ya!” “Heya Proffessor, its me… CANNONBALL… WOOOOOOSH… Bye y’all” Etc.
Yeah youre right…thats not deadpool..my bad lol
But deadpool from weapon x DOES dress completely different…all the pictures on google seem to be from toys…he looks black with 3 white belts on him
We havent seen deadpool in a movie yet…this was the weapon x version of him…now im just hoping they can make him right if they make a deadpool movie
Jim, people are holding on to hope that Weapon XI wasn not deadpool.
Wolverine says “wade is that you” and there is no resolution to that.
We will see what happens. They are considering a Deadpool movie, and with this fan reaction he better be more like Wade Wilson was in this film.
As for Frost being SilverFox’s sister… it could have been that Frost was adopted or she was a bff type sister etc.
Either way, I don’t mind that they made them sisters. They made wolverine and sabertooth brothers… so why not. Frost’s past is so hidden in mystery, she could very well have.
This Frost seems to be mutating backwards from her comic book incarnation. Emma was a telepath who used her powers to gain wealth and social standing, later her power mutated and she could turn her skin to diamonds. This Emma didn’t appear to have mental powers, just the diamond skin.
god this movie was so meh.
I was guessing 94 M on Box Office Mojo, and the downloaded thing doesn’t surprise me, because the people that did watch an illegal copy wanted the final product, and the people that didn’t wanted to see it, little disappointed, REALLY thought it would make it to the 90 M’s, maybe even 100
I’m surprised it made $87mil I really didn’t think it’d make that much I was thinking more along the lines of MAYBE 70mil.
The kid and I caught a showing Saturday morning and sadly she was really disappointed. I think she had her expectations set too high. My expectations were not too high and I was entertained on the whole, but did not like the ending of the movie. The entire third act was disappointing. I really loved the beginnging and Jackman is wonderful as Wolverine, but the story just sort of fell apart. I would also like to mention on how much I loved Liev as Sabertooth, he was truly hateable.
This coming weekend I believe we’ll see a huge drop in Wolverine numbers, especially with Star Trek hitting theaters, but I think the projections for that film are a little high. I am looking forward to checking it out this weekend, but for some reason, I’m still not entirely excited for the movie.
Be interesting to see the drop off next week with the release of Star Trek. I can’t guess B.O worth a damn most of the time. my guess is-50mil next?
So did anyone see any “alternate endings” that they claimed a few weeks ago? From everyone I’ve spoken too, the endings were the same as I saw, so I’m wondering if this was just hype from the studio.
The endings that were spoken about are after the credits. When I went on Sat morning I got the Deadpool scene. Its just like Iron Man and any other film that has an extra scene you’ll see if you stay throughout the credits.
The second week dropoff could be pretty big if the reaction online is any indication.
Agree. The movie overall was pretty terrible. The CG in the scene where wolverine is first investigating his metal claws in the bathroom looked like a cartoon. I was wondering if maybe my theatre was showing me the bootleg version.
I’m not surprised. First big movie of the summer. And with a recession on here in the States movies are still the cheapest form of entertainment. I mean here in New York where everything is twice the price, tickets range from 10.50-12.50. And you can get half price matinees at 6.00!
Hey Rodney,
Technically the movie cost $150 million to make, and that doesn’t take into account marketing (which was probably around $30 million).
Also, don’t forget that the theaters will keep a bunch of the money when it’s all said and done.
In the end, Wolverine will probably have to pull in something between $280-$320 million world wide to ensure it breaks even.
This still covers that part of the budget. Perhaps it will take more in the long run to cover every cost, but its at least getting a grip on this part of the cost.
Don’t forget the merchandising. Every kid that sees it and gets the new action figure helps pay the budget.
Hello Rodney
I have not seen the movie yet but hope to this weekend. I have just 1 question. I thought the Movie Theaters and Movie Studios generally split box office revenue 50/50. If that is the case wouldnt Wolverine have to make at least $300 Million just to break even? (I am using the listed Production budget of $150 Million from BoxOfficeMojo.com) So I did not understand when you said “The World Wide totals came up to $160million which more than covers its $130m budget.”
Can you tell me how the Numbers (Dollars) work?
Thanks
Andy
Andy, on the opening weekend the studios take nearly every penny of the ticket price from the theaters, however as the theater continues to screen the film in following weeks they get to keep more and more.
[Note:I saw the leaked print, and then the final version last night]
I agree with you Rodney, the movie had its share of high points and low points. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie; Jackman IS Wolverine. My only complaint was that the movie’s ending wasn’t as strong or fulfilling as its beginning. I don’t know much about the character Deadpool, but I’ve seen pix, and I wonder how faithful the movie was to his comic book design.
The movie was incredibly faithful to Wade Wilson but at the point that they call him Deadpool, he has nothing at all in common with the comicbook character.
This has been a sore spot for comic book fans and even those willing to accept adaptation are unhappy with this result.
It’s funny how “comic book movies” continually alter ‘canon’ when a perfectly fine story already exists. Imagine if LotR’s Gandalf was changed from ‘human’ to ‘elf’, and Frodo was a centaur. WTF!
I really called this one wrong. I was saying $55 million tops.
“John had guessed a $80-90m weekend”
Actually John was wrong as well. He said anything over $55 million was just wishful thinking. I don’t recall him saying $80-$90 million in any of his post.
“I’ll go out on a limb here and say I think they’re wrong. Not because of piracy, but because I just don’t feel the buzz for this flick to warrant an $80 million opening projection. I might end up being wrong, and I hope I am… but I think projecting anything over $55 million is a bit of wishful thinking. I’m not totally confident about that. Let’s see how it plays out.”
Rob, after the movie was tracking positively leading up to the release on John’s recent impromptu live show he adjusted his prediction.
So my comment was off-topic? That’s my guess since it was deleted. Maybe it was an error. I don’t recall the exact wording, but I suggested that I would like to see someone talk about how this movie was successful enough to recover it’s budget in one weekend, despite having poor buzz AND despite it being leaked online weeks prior to release. Maybe they could talk about how this may prove that piracy is not the cause for movies performing poorly in theatres and therefore, raising the cost of the ticket price isn’t necessary to offset the loss from piracy. In fact, they may have no idea why some movies do poorly. It’s not because the movies are bad because even movies that the majority consider bad have done well (the Saw sequels, Epic Movie and etc) and good movies have done poorly.