History Trivia / DarkPhoenix

** According to the [[reports, https://www.movienewsnet.com/2019/06/11/dark-phoenix-x-men-troubled-production/]] the story was planned to be told in 2 films, but when Disney announced its purchase of Fox in 2017, Fox made the abrupt decision to only make one film. The abrupt decision was made just 2 months after finishing pre-production and when the 2-part script was already written, so it had to be rewritten in a hurry to compress everything into a single film. The film was also planned to be released in a season other than Summer because it was designed more as a psychological character study and not a summer blockbuster.

** It was always stated that ''Dark Phoenix'' was to be the beginning of many films to come, but after Disney's buyout of Fox was officially completed, Simon Kinberg changed his tune to the movie having always intended to be the swan song of the series. Some speculate the backtracking or PR speak might be at play.

* CreatorBacklash: Creator/AlexandraShipp, who portrays Storm, had some [[https://lrmonline.com/news/wondercon-alexandra-shipp-storm-on-dark-phoenix-and-her-character/ choice words]] about [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter feeling that Storm is underused]] in this movie and ''Film/XMenApocalypse''. She also gave Creator/MarvelStudios [[DamnedByFaintPraise a rather backhanded compliment]] in the same exchange, noting that her version of Storm would likely end up being a background character in an big team-up movie:

* CreatorBreakdown: Creator/JenniferLawrence ended up taking a two-year break from acting due to feeling that people had gotten "sick of her" after the film released. She also felt that she didn't put as much effort as she should've, which explains Mystique's rather wooden acting throughout the film.

** In another, [[https://www.cbr.com/dark-phoenix-bomb-harder-fantastic-four/ rather depressing analysis]], the movie earned only ''slightly'' more domestically in its entire lifetime than ''Apocalypse'' earned in its '''opening weekend''' (and that movie was a ''domestic'' flop), and lost even more money than the universally-maligned 2015 ''Film/{{Fantastic Four|2015}}''. (While ''Fantastic Four'' was less expensive a film and ''Dark Phoenix'' outgrossed it, the massive budget on the latter film made it a bigger loss for Fox.) [[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/disney-earnings-miss-the-mark-stock-slides-1203293891/ When Disney addressed lower-than-anticipated earnings for the third quarter of their fiscal year]], they singled out ''Dark Phoenix'' as one of the key reasons that they came up short, in spite of also releasing the record-shattering ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' in that same quarter (a movie which, contrary to ''Dark Phoenix'', performed vastly above already-high expectations across the globe). As a result, Disney announced that it would take a more direct role in green-lighting films released under the Fox brand (though it was likely intended from the get-go, with or without the failure of ''Dark Phoenix'').

* GodNeverSaidThat: Jessica Chastain was assumed by virtually everyone, from media outlets to fans, to be playing Lilandra after it was announced she was playing the BigBad of the film, but it was never explicitly stated to be the case by Fox, which led to Chastain herself revealing that she wasn't the character over social media. The truth ended up being a little more complicated, as Chastain '''was''' initially hired to play Lilandra before the intended two-part film was condensed into one movie.

** K-Pop singer Music/{{Rain|Singer}} was considered for a role in the film but he turned it down due to scheduling conflicts.

* GodNeverSaidThat: Creator/JessicaChastain was assumed by virtually everyone, from media outlets to fans, to be playing Lilandra after it was announced she was playing the BigBad of the film, but it was never explicitly stated to be the case by Fox, which led to Chastain herself revealing that she wasn't the character over social media. The truth ended up being a little more complicated, as Chastain '''was''' initially hired to play Lilandra before the intended two-part film was condensed into one movie.

* McLeaned: Given Creator/JenniferLawrence's disinterest in the series, many were not surprised when Mystique was KilledOffForReal.

-->'''Shipp:''' [[DistinctionWithoutADifference I would and I wouldn't]] [be a fan of joining the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse], because Storm barely has anything to say as it is. I don’t know about you all (other actors), but, like, we never talk. So it would be really nice if we weren’t piled into [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters yet another jam-packed cast]], in which you only see me in the back of the shot like [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] Sasquatch.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Has its own section on the [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/XMenFilmSeries film series page]].

** According to ''Deadline Hollywood'', the reasons for the movie's financial failure included [[TroubledProduction an inflated budget due to extensive reshoots]], [[EndingAversion lack of interest in the prequel series]] [[ContestedSequel after the mixed reception of]] ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' (along with some audiences seeing either ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' or ''Film/{{Logan}}'' as a proper ending for the film series), [[InvisibleAdvertising lack of promotion and the marketing campaign being muddled]] [[ScrewedByTheNetwork (a result of lay-offs related to the Disney-Fox merger)]], [[SummerBlockbuster and the release date being in June, where there was tons of competition]]. The film needed to make about $500 million to be considered profitable, [[https://deadline.com/2019/06/dark-phoenix-bombs-at-the-box-office-reasons-why-1202629749/ and was expected to lose Fox $100 million to $120 million]] by the time that the final total is tallied. [[note]]The article originally calculated those figures to measure the loss if the movie was able to reach $300 million to $325 million; the final total for the film came up significantly short of that, making losses worse than their initial expectations.[[/note]] [[https://deadline.com/2020/04/box-office-bombs-2019-list-1202918753/ (Later reports suggested that the total loss was $133 million, making it the biggest flop of 2019.)]]

-->'''Shipp:''' [[DistinctionWithoutADifference I would and I wouldn’t]] [be a fan of joining the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse], because Storm barely has anything to say as it is. I don’t know about you all (other actors), but, like, we never talk. So it would be really nice if we weren’t piled into [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters yet another jam-packed cast]], in which you only see me in the back of the shot like [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] Sasquatch.

** Director Simon Kinberg wanted to refilm the original climactic sequence to add more X-Men to a scene that otherwise would have just had Professor X, Cyclops, and Phoenix in it, but Fox deemed it too expensive to rebuild the absolutely massive sets that they made for the sequence -- thus resulting in the train sequence.

* MarketBasedTitle: While the film was released in the US as just ''Dark Phoenix'', internationally it was released as ''X-Men: Dark Phoenix''. This is presumably to more clearly market the film as a sequel similar to ''Film/{{Logan}}'' which was released in some international markets as ''Logan: The Wolverine'' and to ''Film/X2XMenUnited'' which was released internationally as just ''X-Men 2''. Upon release to home video in the United States, the ''X-Men'' part of the title was reinstated.
* PlayingAgainstType: Jessica Chastain is rarely the villain, aside from ''Film/CrimsonPeak''. It also marks the first blockbuster role for her since ''Film/TheHuntsmanWintersWar''.

* {{Jossed}}:
** There was a lot of speculation about the identity of Jessica Chastain's "Smith," with popular guesses including Lilandra, Cassandra Nova, or a gender-flipped Mastermind. As it turns out, she's none of those guesses, because her character is an alien named "Vuk", who kills and impersonates a human named Margaret Smith.
** Any speculation that the film would be adjusted to set up a [[TheMultiverse multiverse]] crossover with the MCU down the road was also rendered moot when Fox started marketing the movie as the end to the franchise, and word of Marvel Studios taking over with a full reboot became more prominent.

* BoxOfficeBomb: ''Dark Phoenix'' cost $200 million to produce with an additional $150 million in print advertising, but it only managed to gross $252 million. It represented an absolute franchise low in terms of opening weekend grosses, and a final domestic and global total beneath the original ''[[Film/XMen1 X-Men]]'' film -- $296 million worldwide, in 2000 dollars -- which makes ''Dark Phoenix'' the lowest-grossing installment of the main series, and the second lowest-grossing film, including spin-offs (it only grossed higher than ''Film/TheNewMutants'').\\
\\
According to ''Deadline Hollywood'', the reasons for the movie's financial failure included [[TroubledProduction an inflated budget due to extensive reshoots]], [[EndingAversion lack of interest in the prequel series]] [[ContestedSequel after the mixed reception of]] ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' (along with some audiences seeing either ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' or ''Film/{{Logan}}'' as a proper ending for the film series), [[InvisibleAdvertising lack of promotion and the marketing campaign being muddled]] [[ScrewedByTheNetwork (a result of lay-offs related to the Disney-Fox merger)]], [[SummerBlockbuster and the release date being in June, where there was tons of competition]]. The film needed to make about $500 million to be considered profitable, [[https://deadline.com/2019/06/dark-phoenix-bombs-at-the-box-office-reasons-why-1202629749/ and was expected to lose Fox $100 million to $120 million]] by the time that the final total is tallied. [[note]]The article originally calculated those figures to measure the loss if the movie was able to reach $300 million to $325 million; the final total for the film came up significantly short of that, making losses worse than their initial expectations.[[/note]] [[https://deadline.com/2020/04/box-office-bombs-2019-list-1202918753/ (Later reports suggested that the total loss was $133 million, making it the biggest flop of 2019.)]]\\
\\
In another, [[https://www.cbr.com/dark-phoenix-bomb-harder-fantastic-four/ rather depressing analysis]], the movie earned only ''slightly'' more domestically in its entire lifetime than ''Apocalypse'' earned in its '''opening weekend''' (and that movie was a ''domestic'' flop), and lost even more money than the universally-maligned 2015 ''Film/{{Fantastic Four|2015}}''. (While ''Fantastic Four'' was less expensive a film and ''Dark Phoenix'' outgrossed it, the massive budget on the latter film made it a bigger loss for Fox.) [[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/disney-earnings-miss-the-mark-stock-slides-1203293891/ When Disney addressed lower-than-anticipated earnings for the third quarter of their fiscal year]], they singled out ''Dark Phoenix'' as one of the key reasons that they came up short, in spite of also releasing the record-shattering ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' in that same quarter (a movie which, contrary to ''Dark Phoenix'', performed vastly above already-high expectations across the globe). As a result, Disney announced that it would take a more direct role in green-lighting films released under the Fox brand (though it was likely intended from the get-go, with or without the failure of ''Dark Phoenix'').

* BoxOfficeBomb: ''Dark Phoenix'' cost $200 million to produce with an additional $150 million in print advertising, but it only managed to gross $252 million. It represented an absolute franchise low in terms of opening weekend grosses, and a final domestic and global total beneath the original ''[[Film/XMen1 X-Men]]'' film -- $296 million worldwide, in 2000 dollars -- which makes ''Dark Phoenix'' the lowest-grossing installment of the main series, and the second lowest-grossing film, including spin-offs (it only grossed higher than ''Film/TheNewMutants''.\\

* BoxOfficeBomb: ''Dark Phoenix'' cost $200 million to produce with an additional $150 million in print advertising, but it only managed to gross $252 million. It represented an absolute franchise low in terms of opening weekend grosses, and a final domestic and global total beneath the original ''[[Film/XMen1 X-Men]]'' film -- $296 million worldwide, in 2000 dollars -- which makes ''Dark Phoenix'' the lowest-grossing installment of the main series.\\

According to ''Deadline Hollywood'', the reasons for the movie's financial failure included [[TroubledProduction an inflated budget due to extensive reshoots]], [[EndingAversion lack of interest in the prequel series]] [[ContestedSequel after the mixed reception of]] ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' (along with some audiences seeing either ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' or ''Film/{{Logan}}'' as a proper ending for the film series), [[InvisibleAdvertising lack of promotion and the marketing campaign being muddled]] [[ScrewedByTheNetwork (a result of lay-offs related to the Disney-Fox merger)]], [[SummerBlockbusters and the release date being in June, where there was tons of competition]]. The film needed to make about $500 million to be considered profitable, [[https://deadline.com/2019/06/dark-phoenix-bombs-at-the-box-office-reasons-why-1202629749/ and was expected to lose Fox $100 million to $120 million]] by the time that the final total is tallied. [[note]]The article originally calculated those figures to measure the loss if the movie was able to reach $300 million to $325 million; the final total for the film came up significantly short of that, making losses worse than their initial expectations.[[/note]] [[https://deadline.com/2020/04/box-office-bombs-2019-list-1202918753/ (Later reports suggested that the total loss was $133 million, making it the biggest flop of 2019.)]]\\

According to ''Deadline Hollywood'', the reasons for the movie's financial failure included [[TroubledProduction an inflated budget due to extensive reshoots]], [[EndingAversion lack of interest in the prequel series]] [[ContestedSequel after the mixed reception of]] ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' (along with some audiences seeing either ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' or ''Film/{{Logan}}'' as a proper ending for the film series), [[InvisibleAdvertising lack of promotion and the marketing campaign being muddled]] [[ScrewedByTheNetwork (a result of lay-offs related to the Disney-Fox merger)]], [[DuelingMovies and the release date being in June, where there was tons of competition]]. The film needed to make about $500 million to be considered profitable, [[https://deadline.com/2019/06/dark-phoenix-bombs-at-the-box-office-reasons-why-1202629749/ and was expected to lose Fox $100 million to $120 million]] by the time that the final total is tallied. [[note]]The article originally calculated those figures to measure the loss if the movie was able to reach $300 million to $325 million; the final total for the film came up significantly short of that, making losses worse than their initial expectations.[[/note]] [[https://deadline.com/2020/04/box-office-bombs-2019-list-1202918753/ (Later reports suggested that the total loss was $133 million, making it the biggest flop of 2019.)]]\\

** While Disney's acquisition of Fox did not affect the content within the film, it did adversely affect the movie's marketing campaign, as a number of positions were vacated and were replaced by temporary workers. Disney did attempt to give the movie a last-minute marketing push after the merger had been completed, but they did not spend as aggressively to promote the release. One insider says that the film's lone premiere in Los Angeles was done with an eye to controlling cost -- a bit of economizing that annoyed the film's creative team.

* FollowTheLeader: An odd example of this happening in the same franchise -- ''Dark Phoenix'' eschewing ''X-Men'' from the title was inspired by ''Film/{{Logan}}'' doing the same thing.

* TroubledProduction: If the articles by [[https://deadline.com/2019/06/dark-phoenix-bombs-at-the-box-office-reasons-why-1202629749/ Deadline Hollywood]] and [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/we-were-wrong-behind-dark-phoenix-foxs-dismal-x-men-franchise-finale-plans-1216859 The Hollywood Reporter]] are anything to go by, the film had had lots of behind-the-scenes turmoil.
** The trouble began when Fox executives looked at the poor critical and commercial reception for ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' and felt that the film was an anomaly of what was otherwise a consistently well-performing franchise, rather than evidence that audiences were growing frustrated with its creative direction. In what was a desperate attempt to win back the fans' trust, Fox decided to reboot the ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'', which they previously tackled with the aforementioned ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' to disatrous results. Simon Kinberg, who had been a recurring producer for the series and co-wrote ''The Last Stand'', won the trust of the stars during production of ''Apocalypse'' and was chosen to direct in his feature film debut, despite having lost credibility in the eyes of fans due to his role in the infamous ''Film/FantasticFour2015'' reboot.
** The film was originally planned to be two movies, but during late pre-production the studio changed gears and said it was to be one movie. Simon Kinberg had struggled to get Dark Phoenix right as a result of this.
** Filming went smoothly, but once Fox executives got to see a rough cut, both they and Kinberg agreed that the film was a mess and decided to begin reshoots. Thanks to having to renegotiate many of the actors' contracts, the reshoots didn't occur for ''over a year''. It was during this time that UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch, having grown disillusioned with the trend of media consolidation, decided to sell Fox and its entertainment assets to Creator/{{Disney}}, who owned Marvel Comics and would almost certainly move to send the characters to the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. Since the deal wouldn't be finalized for nearly a year-and-a-half, Fox was forced to continue on with the film. The reshoots ended up resulting in the film moving up its release date by several months. All this was happening as the marketing campaign was rolling out.
** Then things went to hell. Creator/JamesCameron, who was producing ''Film/AlitaBattleAngel'' for Fox, complained that his film was scheduled to open against ''Film/MaryPoppinsReturns'', ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}'' and ''Film/{{Bumblebee}}'', fearing a box office slaughter from all three. Consequently, Fox moved up ''Dark Phoenix''[='=]s release date by ''four months'', making it a summer blockbuster, while giving ''Alita'' the February slot originally reserved for ''Dark Phoenix''. Several Fox executives, including current studio head Emma Watts, rebelled against the move, but were overruled. As the merger with Disney closed, many of the film's marketing staff were forced out in the post-merger shakeup, resulting in the film's campaign lacking any sort of message or direction. Not helping matters was that the film was mercilessly mocked before its release, seeing as a [[ContractualObligationProject lame duck entry]] in a franchise that was doomed to end in the merger's aftermath.

** Can't believe the guy who directed the ''[[Film/FantasticFour2015 Fantastic 4]]'' reshoots made an unpopular movie. Can’t believe the guy who wrote a poor adaption of ''Dark Phoenix'' [[Film/XMenTheLastStand in 2006]] wrote ''and'' directed a poor adaption of it in 2019. [[{{Website/IMDb}} If only we had some sort of sign, like a filmography which clearly indicates potential issues.]]