Once upon a time, X-Men flew high as one of the most popular and highly-regarded franchises in Hollywood, before the last two movies under the ownership of Fox sent both the comic book favorites and the thirteen-film series as a whole out in a blaze of ignominy.
The New Mutants may have spent years on the shelf before being sent out to die at the box office in the middle of the pandemic, but Dark Phoenix didn’t have any such excuses. Director Simon Kinberg was found way out of his depth making his feature debut on a $200 million superhero blockbuster, and the end result was dire.
Jessica Chastain was so invested in her role that she didn’t even know the name of her character until after Dark Phoenix was released, where it went on to score the worst reviews the X-Men had ever seen, securing a record-low box office total to go down as the single biggest bomb of 2019 for good measure.
In short; it wasn’t great, but Dark Phoenix has been enjoying a most unexpected resurgence after being added to the Disney Plus library under the Marvel Legacy banner. As per FlixPatrol, the reviled flop has risen almost 40 places on the viewership rankings within 24 hours, where it can currently be found as the fourteenth most popular title on the Mouse House’s platform.
