20th Century Fox’s “Fantastic Four,” the Vancouver-shot adaptation of the Marvel Comics characters, opened with $56 million from 3,602 theaters.
It was was a victory for Fox after the film was moved from its original Fourth of July release date and, according to Variety, “panned by most critics”.|From sneakpeaktv.com:
20th Century Fox’s “Fantastic Four,” the Vancouver-shot adaptation of the Marvel Comics characters, opened with $56 million from 3,602 theaters.
It was was a victory for Fox after the film was moved from its original Fourth of July release date and, according to Variety, “panned by most critics”.
“When you have a weekend like this, you’ve got to question, what is the relevance of reviewers to viewers at large,” said Fox production president Hutch Parker.
“I don’t think reviewers are writing for the viewing audience anymore. I think they’re writing for each other.”
“More than anything else we’ve seen this summer, this has been a movie that promises and delivers on pure entertainment.”
“Fantastic Four” is now on its way to ranking fifth among comic book adaptations behind “Spider-Man 2″ ($115.8 million in four days) ,”Spider-Man” ($114.8 million in three days), “X2: X-Men United” ($85.5 million) and “The Hulk” ($62.1 million), according to Nielsen EDI.
“Of course, there will be a sequel,” Marvel’s Avi Arad said.
“Now the constituency is much larger.”
The film is rated PG-13, drawing a broad audience, with filmgoers split between those younger and older than 25, according to Fox’s president of distribution, Bruce Snyder.
“You’ve had a series of pretty dark films, and the audience was starved for a good time,” Parker said.
Based on the Marvel Comics series created in the early 1960’s by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, “… it’s one of the only ones that’s a ‘daylight’ comic,” said Parker.
“They are not hiding behind masks or costumes.”