‘Dark Phoenix’ Was The Biggest Box Office Dud Of 2019

I don’t normally like to post about the box office winners and losers outside of the weekly roundup (which has all but been eliminated now thanks to the pandemic), but this involves my beloved X-Men. With 2019 long in the books, the numbers have been added up as to which films cost their respective studios the most money. Turns out, this dishonorable distinction goes to Dark Phoenix, the final X-Men film before Fox turned the reins over to Disney.

According to numbers crunched by Deadline, Dark Phoenix cost Fox about $133M when all was said and done. Oof. The numbers go like this: the film made $252M at the box office, with Fox taking about $100M of that due to the split with theaters. Throw in VOD, Bluray/DVD, and TV, and that’s another $110M in revenue. So with that $210M earned so far, one then needs to factor in the roughly $343M in production and marketing costs. And there’s your $133M in total losses.

A sad way to go out, for sure, and I’m betting Disney sees that and is happy to keep New Mutants on the shelf even longer.

And in case you’re wondering, the next biggest money losers were Terminator: Dark Fate at $122M, and Cats with $113M.

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Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.