The 20th Century Fox movie Logan barreled through theaters across the United States and – indeed – across the globe. With it have come box office numbers that were unexpectedly and unanticipated.
As of Sunday night the movie raked in just over $88 million dollars domestically, with $23.2 million dollars coming in on Sunday alone. This ranks as the 4th best ever opening for a rated R movie, the best Wolverine performance as well as the best opening results for director James Mangold. The only other R-rated movies to best Logan were Deadpool ($132.4M), American Sniper ($89.3M) and The Matrix Reloaded ($91.7M).
Internationally, Logan pulled in $241 million dollars and ranked as first in eighty out of eighty-one markets across the world. This makes it the third best performance for Fox Internationally ever. IMAX took in $20.6 Million dollars, making it the second best r-rated IMAX movie ever, only bested by Deadpool. According to Deadline.com, the top five global markets are ” China ($46.3M/No. 1/ 33% bigger than X-Men: Days Of Future Past); UK ($11.4M/No. 1/1% bigger than DOFP); Korea ($8.2M/No. 1/Fox’s 9th biggest opening of all time); Brazil ($8.2M/No. 1/Fox’s biggest opening of all time); Russia ($7.1M/No. 1/18% bigger than DOFP)”
So how was the movie?
I had the pleasure of seeing this movie at the onset of the weekend, before lots of reviews had come in and I was able to truly formulate my own notions and thoughts about the film.
Firstly, this is not your typical superhero-genre film. This is groundbreaking in more ways than one and serves to move the dial not only forward in what the genre can provide but upwards as well. This movie proves that you can have deeply nuanced characters, that the characters and not necessarily the spectacle can work for superheroes’ movies as the focus. Logan proves (or serves to reiterate the proof that Deadpool provided) that an R-rated movie can work, that you don’t – as James Mangold says – need to sell happy meals and toys for the movie to be successful, that the market and the target demographics can be adults.
Logan proves that Superhero movies don’t have to be all roses and flowers and rainbows with happy endings. For the right characters melancholy and sadness and pain can work just as well. It gives us something different to look at, and helps to push away the “Superhero movie fatigue” that movie-goers and studio execs alike are all too cognizant of. It proves that extinction-level events and alien invasions are not necessary all the time, that the consequences can be confined to just a few core characters and yet somehow still be as traumatic and shocking.
Just like the Johnny Cash cover song we all heard in those first teasers and trailers promised us, the movie will make you hurt. Logan will pull emotion out of you at different time in the film. But that’s what the best art does, it makes you feel. Joy, anger, sadness, desperation, confusion, it’s all there in Logan and it’s all executed tastefully and poignantly.
I recommend seeing this movie if you are a fan of Wolverine and have ever felt – though his 17 years on screen – that he was being held back by the PG13 ratings. See this movie if you are a fan of superhero movies and want something deeper, something different. See this movie if you are a fan of neo-westerns, the “Lone Wolf and Cub” interaction, character studies and grounded, gritty realness without a senses-shattering bath of CGI.
The run time on this movie is close to two and a half hours. It’s a long movie but is necessary for the character development to happen. If it was any longer though, I would be saying it was too long. Also, while I understand the “boss-level” villain that Logan had to fight and the deeper metaphorical choice for him, I would have liked to see another Weapon X project like Weapon X or Sabretooth in that spot. But honestly, at this point, those are nitpicks and I do feel obligated to find something to say here as it wouldn’t truly be a review if I didn’t.
I’m glad there was no end credits scene. With the way the movie ended it almost wouldn’t have felt right to have additional scenes. You will see what I mean when you see the film.
Is this the best movie of the franchise? I would say it is most certainly in the top 3. It is different and, while in the same universe, nearly a stand-alone film. It is (and don’t take this analogy literally) what Rogue One was to the Star Wars saga franchise. Yes, it’s that good and that different.
Just see the movie!
Rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars
9.5 out of 10 Stars
For my full “Spoiler free” review, see the YouTube link above.
2/10? Yikes! That is low, like “plan 9 from outer space” one of the worst movies ever low. I get not like how the X-Men franchise has been handled but that seems rather harsh of a rating. Not saying you’re wrong that is, of course, your opinion but I’d be curious to hear a more in depth review from you as to why you thought it was such a horrible movie.
Charles wasn’t talking like that for fun, that was his Alzheimer’s and dementia. His actions, reactions to situations and verbalizations are all classic signs of his degenerative mental disorder
I really enjoyed it, great send off to characters we’ve all grown with for 17yrs. I also like how they flipped around some aspects of Old Man Logan to use in the movie. There were also so many easter eggs in there for us comic book fans and classic x-men characters. Do I recommend this movie?, 100% yes. I give it a solid 8.5 out of 10, maybe closer to a 9 out of 10.