With all the bad buzz surrounding X-Men: Dark Phoenix lately, it comes as little surprise to see that the Observer has thrown the upcoming superhero flick on their list of three blockbusters they predict will bomb in 2019, alongside Alita: Battle Angel and Rambo V: Last Blood. But if you want an idea of how much 20th Century Fox could stand to lose from this picture, the piece also relays reports of a pretty hefty budget.
If you’ve been keeping track of the slow progress for the X-Men universe’s next release, you may recall that the project was originally scheduled to arrive in cinemas in November 2018, before the film underwent reshoots that sent the date back to this coming February. And in light of this development, the Observer writes that the movie’s budget is “rumored to have ballooned to an exorbitant $200 million thanks to costly and extensive reshoots.”
We’ve heard overblown reports before about the scale and extent of the Dark Phoenix reshoots, but if this new figure proves accurate, then you can take it as one more bad omen for Simon Kinberg’s film. Granted, 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past had a budget in this region and made its money back just fine, but it’s been evident from around the time that 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse arrived in cinemas that a lot of fans have lost their enthusiasm for the mutant saga.
In any case, a few months after landing its February release date, X-Men: Dark Phoenix was delayed once again, with the movie now expected to hit theaters on June 7th, 2019. But if the various rumors surrounding the film are anything to go by, then the inevitable X-Men reboot that the Disney/Fox deal will bring may not have come at the worst time.
