'X-Men' take 'First Class' to first place

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

The young heroes of the fifth X-Men movie cruised to the head of the class at theaters this weekend, though some questioned whether the film graduated as valedictorian.

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  By Murray Close, 20th Century Fox via AP

  'X-Men: First Class,' with Michael Fassbender, was No. 1 at the box office this weekend.

By Murray Close, 20th Century Fox via AP

'X-Men: First Class,' with Michael Fassbender, was No. 1 at the box office this weekend.

X-Men: First Class took in $56 million, according to studio estimates from Hollywood.com.

The debut met the lower end of expectations of some analysts, who expected the film to do $60 million. Executives at 20th Century Fox had expected a $50 million debut.

"We are ecstatic," says Chris Aronson of 20th Century Fox, which released the movie. "This was a complete reboot. We completely redid the cast. And it still was a hit."

Featuring an overhauled ? and younger ? lineup, Class marked the franchise's second prequel and fifth film in 11 years since director Bryan Singer introduced the comic-book adaptation.

The movie earned some of the best reviews of the year, garnering a thumbs-up from 87% of the nation's film critics, according to rottentomatoes.com.

Once anchored by the likes of Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and Patrick Stewart, the new cast, featuring James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, may have played more like a "fanboy fantasia," an adept but inside-baseball adaptation, says Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo.

Gray, who called Class' performance "passable," says its debut "reiterates the danger of rebooting a still-prominent franchise without a clean break and the passage of a lot of time." The last X-Men installment, Wolverine, did $180 million two years ago.

But Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com says moviegoers who aren't comic-book devotees may catch the film if audiences are as impressed as critics.

"Look for the core comic masses to make it out (opening weekend) while those who like action films but are not hard-core into comics may sit on the bench this weekend but take a chance later after positive buzz from friends reaches them," Pandya says.

Aronson says the movie did another $64 million in 74 territories overseas, bringing its worldwide debut to $120 million. And Aronson was quick to dismiss critics of the latest movie, which he compared to Batman Begins, another superhero reboot. That film opened to $49 million in 2005.

"People can say what they want," Aronson says. "We beat Batman Begins, we beat the first X-Men (which debuted at $55 million in 2000). I'll take a $120 million debut any day."

No other major newcomer challenged Class, leaving clean-up work to holdovers.

Though TheHangover Part II dropped 62% in its second weekend, the comedy's $32.4 million haul was enough to earn it second place. The film has done $188.9 million in 10 days.

The animated comedy Kung Fu Panda 2 was third with $24.3 million, lifting its overall gross to $100.4 million.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was fourth with $18 million, followed by the comedy Bridesmaids with $12.1 million.

Final figures are due Monday.

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