I don’t think it’s unfair to say that the X-Men franchise peaked with Days of Future Past. Yes, I know there are plenty of fans out there who have problems with it, but it was received well by critics, a lot of fans enjoyed it at the time, it got an A CinemaScore, and most importantly, it is the highest-grossing film in the X-Men franchise (aside from Deadpool, of course). It was the perfect storm of entertaining storytelling and box office success.

What followed was…disappointing. X-Men: Apocalypse went for the big spectacle angle, but as a result, came across a bit hollow. This was the takeaway execs over at Fox took away from that film’s lukewarm reception, which resulted in an underwhelming box office take. But apparently, that was the wrong lesson. One Fox insider spoke with THR about the recent flop that is Dark Phoenix, and the pointed to overall franchise fatigue.

“There was a misguided feeling that [Apocalypse] was an anomaly, that we just got it wrong,” they said. “We were wrong.”

RELATED – Dark Phoenix On Track To LOSE $100M?

So, what should they have done? Well, rebooting the characters would have been the way to go. Instead, they not only locked down on a group of supporting characters audiences were no longer clicking with, but they also took a stab at another storyline that had already served them ill in X-Men: The Last Stand.

And then there was another factor: The release date.

Because the execs had felt the problem with Apocalypse lay in there being too many explosions, they purposely created Dark Phoenix to be the anti-summer blockbuster. It would be smaller, more intimate. Regarding this, THR‘s insiders said:

“In some ways, it was designed to be an anti-Apocalypse, to have less spectacle and scale. Big for off-season, too small for summer”

But when the studio felt the need to push Alita: Battle Angel to February, they had no choice but to push Dark Phoenix to June…in the dreaded summer season where it wouldn’t thrive.

Producers Emma Watts, Hutch Parker, and Simon Kinberg, begged the execs not to do it…but do it they did.

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SOURCE: THR