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The international vibe of The Wolverine seems to have paid off for Fox Studios and James Mangold as the movie has opened huge internationally with $86 million.
However, where it falls flat is at home, as with a movie weekend with no competition, similar to Wolverine losing his healing factor in the movie, the flick loses it’s snikt-worthiness with U.S. audiences as it opens to a dismal $54-55 million (Update: Actually it’s less, coming in at $53,113,752).
That’s the least of all the Wolverine and X-Men sequels, including X-Men: First Class.
Various reasons are cited for the less than stellar U.S. opening with Fox Studios citing “audience fatigue” as The Wolverine opened at the end of Summer and not at the beginning.
Of course it couldn’t have to do with bad word-of-mouth as The Wolverine opened strong Thursday and Friday which led optimistic Hollywood insiders to estimate the movie having a $65-70 million opening, but by Saturday the numbers started to decline leading to the $55 million opener.
Fan response to The Wolverine seems to be really mixed as it is getting the “love-hate” response. Some fans outright loved the movie, while some really despised it.
Of course it could also have to do with Wolverine: X-Men Origins, which did really well in its opening weekend, but caught audiences with their pants down as the movie was not received favorably at all. So it’s possible that the failure of the last Wolverine movie could have influenced this one.
Regardless, the $141 million is already enough to cover the cost of the movie for Fox Studios which is said to have a $120 million budget.
The Wolverine is currently in theaters, and Hugh Jackman can next be seen reprising Logan for Bryan Singer and X-Men: Days Of Future Past.
