Finisher

The franchise is dead. This dud will limp to 30 million.

Film was minor, lazily written and utterly disposable. I mean, ten years since the last film and the best you can come up with is a lame psychic/abduction plot? Are you fucking kidding me? Gillian Anderson said in interviews it was a pain getting back in character, and it shows.

dadaluholla

I will give it the award for "emptiest theater of 2008". There were a grand total of 7 people in there when we saw it today.

NitroJMS

I'm going to have to blame poor marketing for this one. The only promotion other than on the web that I've seen was a single poster in the theater, and that disappeared after a few weeks.

I've seen most of the big summer movies (Iron Man, Narnia, Hulk, Indy, TDK, Wall-E, Sex and the City, Zohan) and I never saw the X-Files trailer once in the theater. Fox certainly didn't sign up enough films to have the trailer attached to.

Setzer

We'll wait and see what the total numbers are. The 1998 film grossed 189 million with 100mil coming from foreign sales. I'm guessing the film will probably gross between 30-40 million here and 50+ over seas. They're still going to make money. The big problem is Fox chose to release the film this weekend and had they waited until August they would have most likely doubled their opening weekend earnings. Poorly written story or not, it would not have affected it's opening weekend totals.

I enjoyed the film but I was hoping for a different story. I mean, after 10 years this was the best Chris Carter could come up with? I know they wanted to do something that didn't relate to the TV series so it would appeal to those who haven't seen X-Files before but the best story he could come up with was about some pedophile who has visions? That's the only thing that disappointed me -- it was still a good movie but it could have been a whole lot better.

mdc3000

to each their own...I'll take Shia and an Indy film over this flick any day of the week...I do hope this makes enough money for Chris Carter to do a proper X-Files movie...you know, the one most of us wish THIS WAS. (and Indy did not have cg dogs farting - where did that come from?)

chriscooling

I, too am hugely disappointed with this dud.
Saw it this afternoon and kept wondering when the plot was really going to get started.
I never thought about it until now, but it did seem more like a twisted crime drama or a Millennium plot than an X-Files.
This plot barely qualifies as an X-Files.
The paranormal aspects are
The villain(s?) might have been acceptable in an episode but are extremely weak for a feature film. In addition, the whole plot that develops toward the end is preposterous.
By the time

SeanValen

Every studio messes up, or good example is Warner, from Batman Forever/ROBIN, the Begins and Dark Knight


Fox hasn't been kind to Chris Carter, canceled Millennium, where infact it should of continued for 2 more seasons

Canceled Harsh Realm just before it got going
The Lone Gunmen

And this X files 2 film long delayed, it's ashame that Carter being so highly praised in the 90s probabley wasn't giving enough respect at FOX, He's done so much good work, I wonder what conditions were made for him to film X files 2, there's too much behind the scenes tinkering by FOX, maybe we'll never know, but I hope for the Legacy of the X files, someone gives us answers, and or the film hops along to justify a 3rd film.



It's not the first time a studio has let a film go out to defend for itself, it's almost as if the 30 million budget was a experiment to see if fans can pull in the numbers regardless, any how, the Dark Knight buzz is still effecting all other films, I would not have released X files even if it was a mega film at this time, it could of had a easy 20 million weekend some other time, my thoughts..

blucadet3

It had cgi prairie dogs farting...bad cgi monkeys, bad cgi ants...

mdc3000

I don't know what you heard, but the prairie dogs most certainly did not fart....

tommyp007

We saw this last night, and I pretty much agree with every one of Shannons thoughts here. Like a mediocre episode of the week: not something that Carter and Co. had years to put together.

Shannon Nutt

Let me know who to fill out the check to.

Only $10.2 million for the weekend.

mdc3000

I didn't love it but was certainly hoping it'd do better than a measly 10 mil.

blucadet3

I was in a new all digital theater with thx...one of the dogs that got scared jumped away and farted as it went back into its hole. I confirmed my memory with a friend who was there with me. Maybe it was a mass halucination, but thats what we borh remember. We looked at each other in disbelief at how stupid something was about 20 times during that movie and that was one of them.

Sorry to keep posting off topic! I'm done now

Shannon Nutt

Sorry, never happened. Saw Indy 4 times (2 digital DLP/2 film). Nice try, though.

man*machine

If you actually sat through Indy 4 four times, your critical opinion of ANY movie is completely nil.

Setzer

RTisBetter

Not really.

RTisBetter

why are you laughing, you monkey?

indy81

You really think the X-FILES movie bombed because there wasn't a viral marketing campaign? That's some serious internet-dude myopia. Fox didn't spend a lot of dough on the budget or advertising because they knew the film would appeal to a small audience and they didn't want to risk throwing their money away. It was a low budget gamble and it didn't really pay off - but it won't cost them much, either. If they would've spent $100 million on the movie it would've just lost that much more.

Clearly THE X-FILES is just one of those franchises that, due to a million missteps by Carter and Fox, has lost almost all of its fan base over the years. There aren't many die-hard X-FILES fans left, and they all saw the film this weekend. And unfortunately it's a film that has very little appeal to anyone outside of the die-hards. Ask the typical guy on the street if he wants to see the new X-FILES movie and he'll laugh in your face.

But sure enough, just like with SERENITY, I knew there would be fans arguing that "it'll make money on DVD", "there will be another movie", etc. It's over, folks. Mulder and Scully waved goodbye during the credits for a reason.

blucadet3

Because it was hilarious?

Setzer

Because it was funny, dummy.

Matto1020

Not only because there wasn't a viral marketing campaign...but simply that there was no marketing to raise awareness for the movie what so ever.

Most people I talked to found out about the movie through me, never even knowing one was being made. If Fox would of spent money on more posters, trailer showings, a website that actually did something, and yes, a little viral stuff as well...I'll bet money the film would of opened bigger than it did....there is a reason we have advertising in this world...because it works.

Would it of opened to Dark Knight numbers...heck no! But it could of opened to a box office take in that was the budget.

SeanValen

The main problem of this X Files film is the delay, hell it's been 10 years since the first film, why so long.............Legal lame issues between Carter and Fox.

Since that 10 years, Fox has had 24 setting tv world alite, times have moved on, but I do think had they got a X files movie out in 2004/05/06 it would of been alright, or release a scary film in the fall.


Me personally, I would of gotten James Wong and Glenn Morgan, the writers of many episodes of the show and some very scary ones in Millennium season two, these guys bascially turned a potential X files episode into a film series, anyone remember Final Destination? Originally written like a X files episode, but Wong and Morgan turned it into a film, I'm sure with some tinkering, they could of made Final Desination into a X files film, the X files movie series just needs some careful planning, I don't believe Chris Carter is the soul of the show always, he did great work, but once the show was up and running, director David Nutter and Glenn Morgan and James Wong were very capable as well, showing X files can be done by others, Chris Carter did a great job on the millennium pilot, he'\s a talent, but maybe he used all his creative juices, or maybe someone needed to remind Fox just what made alot of the good X files episodes very good stand alone.

Why not have a R rated violent graphic X files film set in the fall, tailored for a Saw audience? They can do and should of done a couple of cool X files film, but Fox I think somehow got itchy feet on the X files fanchise, I personally think there's some higher brass guy up there who just doesn't understand what made the series tick the most, the X files wasn't like star trek, the x files had a mass useage of ideas and stories, those creative juices just were not with this 2nd film from what I've read, can anyone see Fox allowing Carter to do a R rated X files film? I just think if they wanna make a success, make a good film that happens to be a X files film.

Do a scary film in the fall, market it for Halloween, it would be perfect for X files, all this low key release and marketing while everyone's talking about the dark knight still, is just the pants for the biggest show of the 90s, alot of things could of been handled better.

I hope Carter/Fox/David D speak up in the future regarding the process of this film.

Shannon Nutt

I've sat through Dark Knight four times as well...guess that movie sucks too, huh?

Truth is, I see a LOT of movies more than once. I saw Indy four times because I wanted to catch it on film AND digital the first weekend, the third time I had friends who were going, and the final time I was just so I could catch it one last time before it left theaters (and there was nothing else playing I was interested in seeing/seeing again).

And for the record, INDY IV is as much better than X-FILES 2 as DARK KNIGHT is better than INDY IV. INDY IV may be cartoonish in parts, but at least it's not DULL.

indy81

Fox marketing claims they were at 95% awareness in the U.S. Of course, we should take that with a grain of salt, but my anecdotal evidence is somewhat different than yours. Ads had been playing on ESPN, for instance, almost nonstop for a week prior to release. Friends I talked to knew the film was coming out, but they thought it looked bad, or at the very least, irrelevant.

But all's well that ends well. The fans got to spend some more time with Mulder and Scully, and they got a more satisfying (in my opinion) conclusion to the franchise than the series finale. And today Fox even claims that the film will be "very profitable", although again consider this a bit of spin. I'm sure they would've been much happier if the film would've made $20 million domestic like most predicated.

But even if the film ekes out a modest profit, you've got to think that another theatrical installment is impossible. I'd love to see TV movies, but I doubt the actors and Carter would be up for it. In fact, this new film would have worked much better on TV, as others have mentioned.