X-MEN: APOCALYPSE leads Memorial Day box office with quiet, but good opening.

Bryan Singer’s X-MEN: APOCALYPSE is set to bring in about $65 million during it’s first 3-day weekend in the USA box office, with the film expected to earn $80 million during the entire four-day Memorial Day holiday. That’s a significant drop from the $110.5 million take DAYS OF FUTURE PAST brought in during the same holiday back in 2014. Of course, that was an “event film” with the novelty of the original cast returning.

While the numbers seem rather low, they’re an overall improvement for the box office general, when compared with last year’s numbers. They match what 20th Century Fox were expecting from the film.

Besides ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, ‘Apocalypse’ surprisingly received one of the worst Rotten Tomatoes scores compared to any other film in the X-Men franchise with a 48%.

Not sure what critics were smoking, as audiences gave the film an A- Cinemascore, just below DOFP’s “A” and above FIRST CLASS’ “B+” rating.

Internationally, the film brought in another $55.3 million from 79 markets, bringing it’s currently total to $185.8 million. Adding four more territories, the film opened at #1 in South Korea with $12 million. It held onto the #1 spot in Brazil, UK and Australia. ‘Apocalypse’ arrives in China on June 3rd and Japan on August 11th.

Fox domestic distribution chief Chris Aronson told Variety he was “exceptionally pleased” with the amount, predicting the film will have higher repeat business due to positive (A-) response from the audience and fans, despite many baffling reviews from critics.

“It’s a challenging marketplace, to be sure, but the domestic opening coupled with the international rollout puts us in terrific shape,” he said.

Source: Box Office Mojo, Variety