This is the story of one of the X-Men’s most beloved characters, Jean Grey, as she evolves into the iconic DARK PHOENIX. During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all. Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet. The film is the most intense and emotional X-Men movie ever made. It is the culmination of 20 years of X-Men movies, as the family of mutants that we’ve come to know and love must face their most devastating enemy yet — one of their own.

However, Box Office Pro is reporting that the final X-Men movie from Fox is likely to only earn between $40 million to $50 million during its opening weekend in North America. That may not sound too bad on the surface, but it’s a fraction of what most superhero movies do and a record-low for the long-running franchise.  The problem is that there’s little to no excitement for Dark Phoenix, and that could explain why the movie is currently expected to have such a record low opening weekend for the X-Men franchise. The film will more than likely earn around $100-115 million over the course of its entire run at the North American box office. And considering the fact that extensive reshoots sent the budget rocketing as high as $200+ million, this doesn’t bode well, and it’s hard to see why Disney would even want to give it a theatrical release at this point.

In fact, this film could damage the X-Men brand for a while. And that’s unfortunate. I hope I’m wrong.

In Theaters June 7

Written and Directed by: Simon Kinberg

Produced by: Simon Kinberg, Hutch Parker, Lauren Shuler Donner, Todd Hallowell

Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters, and Jessica Chastain