It's official. Dark Phoenix is now the lowest grossing X-Men movie ever. The theatrical run has ended with $65.8 million domestically. This is a lot lower than the previous record holder, The Wolverine, which was still able to earn $132.5 million in North America. The cards were stacked against the final installment from the beginning and now it looks like Disney may have withheld over $50 million in marketing, adding to the disastrous final numbers at the box office around the globe.

Internationally, Dark Phoenix faired a bit better at the box office, though it still holds the record for the lowest grossing installment of the franchise. The movie was able to earn $252.4 million, but that is still pretty far behind the original X-Men movie, which scored $296.3 million worldwide when it was released in theaters almost 20 years ago. Both Marvel fans and critics were not happy with the finished product, though there are still some hardcore fans who stand by it and are sad to see the Fox properties head over to Marvel Studios. They would definitely be in the minority.

As for how this could have happened, many point to the extensive reshoots and inevitable release date delays that kept occurring. Then Dark Phoenix's ending had to be completely rehauled after it was revealed that it was going to be too similar to the MCU's Captain Marvel with the addition of the Skrulls. Then there was the looming Fox and Disney deal that many knew from the start would be the end of this current line of X-Men movies. Whatever the case may be, it looks like the project was doomed from the beginning.

It has also been reported that Disney fired the marketing team for Dark Phoenix when they took over. Apparently, the studio completely ignored the movie after firing the veteran marketing team from Fox and withheld millions, which really didn't do the movie any favors when it was released in theaters. Now, fans are waiting to see what kind of magic Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige can do on the Fox properties within the MCU. Feige already revealed that the X-Men and Fantastic Four reboots are on the way, but we just don't know when exactly.

Disney's D23 Expo will be held next weekend, so many are hopeful that we'll get an update from Kevin Feige in regard to the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises and how they will be incorporated into the MCU. For starters, it does not look like the aforementioned properties will be introduced in the upcoming MCU Phase 4. However, they could very well end up in Phase 5, which is only a few years away since Phase 4 concludes in November 2021 with Thor: Love and Thunder. The box office information for Dark Phoenix comes to us courtesy of Box Office Mojo.