From day one, no one seemed particularly enthusiastic about the prospect of a Fantastic Four reboot. Much of that stemmed from a desire to see the rights revert to Marvel Studios, but with Josh Trank (Chronicle) hired to direct and an impressive cast assembled in the form of Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell, things started looking up.
The teaser trailer for Fantastic Four also appeared to signal good things to come, and even those who had been doubting the movie from day one were forced to admit that there was a good chance it would do what X-Men: First Class did back in 2011 and exceed everyone’s expectations.
That was despite some hard to believe rumours about issues behind the scenes, but those suddenly became a lot easier to buy into when the first wave of reviews for Fantastic Four surfaced. It quickly became clear that the movie wouldn’t be getting any good ones (it remains one of the worst reviewed superhero movies of all-time) and things took a turn for the worse when Josh Trank disowned the reboot on Twitter, followed by an expose from The Hollywood Reporter that shined a light on the shocking behind the scenes drama which plagued the production and led to it being such a mess.
Fantastic Four is already a box office flop, that much we know, but things got worse for Fox today when it ended its box office run in North America. In nine weeks, the reboot has earned a paltry $56,051,712. That’s less than the first Fantastic Four movie back in 2005 and another crushing blow to the studio. It’s hard to imagine them ever moving forward with a sequel now, but whether they’ll attempt a crossover with the X-Men franchise or just give up and let the rights revert to Marvel Studios is unclear at this point.
Whatever the case, the franchise desperately needs an overhaul.
