'X-Men' reboot brings in $56 million

By Sarah Sluis

Fox gave the reins of X-Men: First Class to director Matthew Vaughn, who had a nerd-approved box-office disappointment last year with Kick-Ass. His reboot of the X-Men series had an even better reception on Rotten Tomatoes (87% positive compared to 76% positive for Kick-Ass), and performed roughly in line with expectations, earning $56 million. Fox's take is that the movie is like Batman Begins (which opened to $46 million), an origin tale that paves the way for an award-winning blockbuster like The Dark Knight. Of course, we won't know if that story is true until a few years from now.

The Hangover and The Hangover Part II both earned $32 million in their second weekends. The difference is that the sequel dropped 62% to get to that point, while the first film dipped just 27%. Audiences had to discover the first one through word-of-mouth, but the second one had lots of built-in anticipation. The Hangover Part II might not be selling out theatres for weeks and weeks. What it has is money in the bank. Part II has amassed $182 million so far, while the first film had just $100 million at this point.

Bridesmaids dipped 27% this weekend to $12.1 million, the comedy's biggest drop to date. That's still good news for this word-of-mouth hit, which just passed the $100 million mark.

As Midnight in Paris more than doubled the amount of theatres playing the Woody Allen film, it earned $2.9 million, officially making this Allen's most successful outing since Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Focus' Beginners had the best debut of any film in the specialty circuit, averaging $27,000 per screen. The Weinstein Co.'s Toronto Film Festival acquisition, Submarine, earned $10,000 per screen on five screens. Though the British comedy earned raves on the festival circuit, there were reports that the movie wasn't screening well and CEO "Harvey Scissorhands" was retooling the film. Those numbers seem to reflect that something is being lost in translation.

This Friday, pre-teen girls have a film all to themselves, Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer. The main attraction will be director J.J. Abrams evoking his inner Spielberg for Super 8.

'X-Men: First Class' takes on 'The Hangover Part II'

By Sarah Sluis

The X-Men series is aging, so the latest film, X-Men: First Class (3,641 theatres) turns back the clock. The series goes back to the time when mutants Charles Xavier and Magneto were friends, in the 1960s during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Layer Cake) moves to big-budget films and wields a "wickedly smart script with a multilayered theme that never wavers...and makes each emotional motivation interlock, often shockingly playing for keeps with its characters," critic Frank Lovece raves. Lesser-known dramatic stars and up-and-comers populate the cast, including Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and January Jones. Fox is playing it safe and predicting a $40 million opening weekend, but outsiders think the movie could top $50-60 million.

After last weekend's blockbuster opening, The Hangover Part II is expected to drop by half and settle with $40 million its second weekend. Kung Fu Panda 2 should have a stronger hold on audiences, especially since it's the only family film in the marketplace. After two weekends with Midnight in Paris killing it in per-screen averages, the Woody Allen film will expand to 147 theatres, nearly tripling the amount of locations. The Tree of Life is going a slower route, expanding to 20 locations. Roger Ebert gave the Chicago-bound film four stars, remarking that the Midwestern-set story "reflect[s] a time and place I lived in, and the boys in it are me."

The semi-autobiographical tale Beginners (5 theatres) centers on a depressed man (Ewan McGregor) struggling consecutively with his father's recent coming out and his death. FJI critic David Noh complains that the movie is an "overloaded soap opera...obsessed with sadness," and I can't agree more. The McGregor character needs to ditch the soap opera and watch one of "Oprah"'s gratitude episodes, because he seriously has nothing to complain about.

Also on the specialty list is the considerably less annoying emo movie Submarine (4 theatres). The British coming-of-age picture should appeal to "fans of such quirk-meisters as Wes Anderson," according to critic Erica Abeel. She praises both the "magical debut" of director Richard Ayoade and the performance of Craig Roberts, "a sexy charmer who conveys [main character] Oliver's inner world with an intense deadpan."

On Monday, we'll see if X-Men: First Class drew the "grownup" audiences Lovece predicted, and if audiences fell for Beginners or Submarine.