The opening weekend for X-Men: Apocalypse is now behind us and we can now declare that it was the top movie for this past weekend, besting Angry Birds, Neighbors 2 and others. Angry Birds came in far behind at $55.5 million. Captain America: Civil War brought in an additional $30.7M after recently surpassing the $1Billion dollar mark. X-Men: Apocalypse took in a total of $103.3 million on the international stage. This number came from 20,596 theater screens across 75 different global markets, including the United Kingdom which brought in $10.5 million, Mexico at $8.6 million and even the IMAX brought in $5M from 246 screens in 57 markets. This opening weekend represented approximately 64 percent of the global market. X-Men: Apocalypse opens on May 25th in Korea and Japan will watch the movie starting August 11th 2016.
X-Men: Apocalypse is set for wide release domestically on Thursday. Reviews on this movie from 20th Century Fox so far have been lackluster, at worst and mixed at best. It is currently a 52% rating on Rotten Tomatoes while IGN gives it 7 out of 10. Despite these, I will be withholding judgement and seeing the movie for myself.
Empire’s Helen O’Hara: “Messier and heavier than Days Of Future Past, this is not so much the next step in the X-Men’s evolution as a failed callback to past glories.”
Roger Ebert from RogerEbert.com: “X-Men: Apocalypse” is a confused, bloated mess of a film.” He goes on to say in his scathing review that “The greatest sin of “X-Men: Apocalypse” by far is how terribly it wastes some of the greatest modern actors.” and concludes with “X-Men: Apocalypse” isn’t just the low point in Singer’s series, it represents one of the ugliest superhero films in recent memory.”
Edward Douglas from NY Daily News: “With his fourth movie “X-Men: Apocalypse,” director Bryan Singer proves he’s still as good as Professor X at handling Marvel’s mutants”.
The movie, written by Simon Kinberg and directed by Brian Singer will star James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto) Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Oscar Isaac (Apocalypse), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey), Rose Byrne (Moira McTaggert), Tye Sherida (Cyclops), Kodi Smit0McPhee (Nightcrawler), Lana Condor (Jubilee), Olivia Munn (Psylocke) and will see Evan Peters reprise his role as Quicksilver as well as many other cast new or re-newed for the movie including a cameo by Wolverine, aka Weapon X. In the cinematic universe, this is the Wolverine who first broke out of containment at Alkali Lake in the movie X2.
Here is the official synopsis for the movie, followed by a rather unique advertisement by Jubilee for Xavier’s School for Gifted Children and finally a couple of commercials:
Following the critically acclaimed global smash hit X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer returns with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE. Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel’s X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.
