Box Office Hobo: Weekend Report, June 3-5

The first weekend of June was won by X-Men: First Class, but was it really a win?

Here is the top-5 breakdown:
   1. X-Men: First Class (N) -- $55,101,604
   2. The Hangover Part II (LW 1) -- $31,381,234 [$185,808,194 through 11 days]
   3. Kung Fu Panda 2 (LW 2) -- $23,887,914 [$100,028,372 through 11 days]
   4. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (LW 3) -- $17,954,603 [$190,200,880 through 17 days]
   5. Bridesmaids (LW 4) -- $12,040,875 [$107,167,230 through 24 days]

With only one new major release, there is no denying that X-Men performed very poorly despite overwhelmingly positive reviews.  This is the second comic book inspired super-hero film released this summer, and neither have performed up to what many would have predicted.  Thor may have a good foreign take, but eclipsed its production budget only last weekend.  And although X-Men may be slightly less accessible being a period piece that emphasizes character over action, the success of the franchise should have lead to bigger numbers.

To me, there are three major take-aways from the weekend.  First, it could very well be true that super hero films across the board will under-perform.  There are still two major super hero films yet to come out this summer, and two very important and heavily-marketed ones at that.  I've expected Green Lantern to be the highest grossing comic adaptation this summer, so there may still yet be hope, but I think the question over middle-America finally being over the film craze is a legitimate one.  Lasting success and more projects is all up to The Avengers, but with Matthew Vaughn saying the new X-Men films were envisioned as a prequel trilogy, sequels for Thor and Iron Man already announced and projects like a Daredevil reboot in the works, have we started to see the tipping point emerge already?

Secondly, and briefly, X-Men: First Class is one of the few big action films this summer that did not have the benefit of a 3D surcharge.  This certainly could have helped it earn $15-20 more million at the gate, which would have softened its failure.  Yet, Fast Five showed that you don't need the surcharge to create a hit.

Thirdly, the poor performance of X-Men and the continued success of The Hangover also bring the age-old question of whether reviews help box-office into play once again.  Although reviews began to taper off a bit toward the end of the weekend, First Class still has received very high marks, especially compared to a lot of critical bile for The Hangover.  Comedies, of course, tend to be critic proof, since humor is incredibly subjective and tend people don't typically look at them critically other than "did I laugh?"  Because people are laughing at The Hangover, no matter how creatively bankrupt the film is, word-of-mouth is still going to be positive.

Stay tuned later this week for a closer look at the business of X-Men: First Class in comparison to its predecessors.