‘Dark Phoenix’ Is the Worst Reviewed X-Men Movie in History

This turned out to be a really dark phoenix.

The news for the X-Men franchise is not good. Dark Phoenix grossed an estimated $14 million on Friday night, meaning it’s going to earn about $35 million in its opening weekend, which would be the lowest-grossing debut in the entire 20-year history of the X-Men series. (The second lowest, The Wolverine, made $53.1 million in its opening weekend.)

Dark Phoenix is also the worst-reviewed movie in the series (with a 22 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, below even X-Men Origins: Wolverine’s 37 percent). Here are all the movie’s RT scores to date

1. Logan: 93 percent
2. X-Men: Days of Future Past: 90 percent
3. X-Men: First Class: 86 percent
4. X2: 85 percent
5. Deadpool: 84 percent
6. Deadpool 2: 83 percent
7. X-Men: 81 percent
8. The Wolverine: 71 percent
9. X-Men: The Last Stand: 57 percent
10. X-Men: Apocalypse: 47 percent
11. X-Men Origins: Wolverine: 37 percent
12. Dark Phoenix: 22 percent

And it’s also got the lowest CinemaScore in the franchise as well — by a wide margin. Opening night audiences gave Dark Phoenix a lowly B-. And no movie in X-Men history has ever gotten less than a B+ before. Here’s every X-Men movie’s CinemaScore to date. X-Men: The Last Stand got an A-! If audiences gave that movie an A-, that tells you all you need to know about that B- that Dark Phoenix got.

1. Deadpool: A
2. Deadpool 2: A
3. X2: A
4. X-Men: Days of Future Past: A
5. Logan: A-
6. The Wolverine: A-
7. X-Men: A-
8. X-Men: Apocalypse: A-
9. X-Men: The Last Stand: A-
10. X-Men: First Class: B+
11. X-Men Origins: Wolverine: B+
12. Dark Phoenix: B-

Basically, if you were holding out any shred of hope that Marvel might somehow continue this version of the X-Men after New Mutants comes out next year, you can stop right now. These box office numbers and these reviews — not just from critics but from hardcore fans who paid money to see it on opening night — suggest that the franchise has run its course. It’s time for something all-new.

Gallery — The Biggest X-Men Movie Plot Holes: