Fox's Fantastic Four got a Thing-like pummeling at the box office with a $26.2M first outing, allowing Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation to take #1 for the second weekend in a row with $29.4M.
Fantastic's $6,558 take per screen underwhelmed across the board and it doesn't look like the Josh Trank-directed film has any hopes of turning things around. The film earned a dismal "C-" Cinemascore, a very low grade for what is supposed to be a summer blockbuster. Pixels, for heaven's sake, earned a "B."
The top 12, with $121.7M, was 30.1% lower than last year in this frame ($174.2) when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles surprised with a $65.6M opening weekend and Guardians of the Galaxy had the best 2nd weekend of the summer of 2014, hauling in $42.1M.
They contributed to a first ever $1B August, something extremely unlikely to be repeated this year.
As for Fantastic Four one has to go back to 2012 for a film associated with the Marvel comics brand, which is different but comprises the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Sony Spider-Man and Fox films, to find a Marvel film opening so poorly..
1. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation $29,400,000
2. Fantastic Four $26,200,000
3. The Gift (2015) $12,007,000