Weekend Box Office: ‘X-Men: First Class’ Underwhelms, But I Still Liked It

As many predicted, 'X-Men: First Class' easily took the top spot at the box office this weekend. Beating out 'The Hangover: Part 2' by more than 20 million dollars.

Still, the Marvel reboot, which traced the beginnings of the 'X-Men' characters, managed to fall well below expectations, taking in just $56.0 million. To put things in perspective: That's the lowest debut by an 'X-Men' movie since the franchise launched in 2000, with $54.5 million.

I was sitting the theatre seats for this one on Sunday and I have to say I liked it. Yes, it strayed even further from the original comic book story lines than the first three movies and that drives a comic nut like me crazy, but it was still a pretty entertaining flick. Cool special effects, some good characterization, and was paced very well to keep me interested. It was also a much violent than the other 'X' movies. I could easily be wrong, but it felt like there were more dead bodies in this one than in the first three combined.

I was also pleasantly surprised that Kevin Bacon made a pretty good Sebastian Shaw.

Also disappointing in ticket sales this weekend was last week's champion, 'The Hangover Part II,' which dropped a drastic 62 percent, to just $32.4 million. The sequel to the popular 2009 comedy has raked in $186.9 million over 11 days, which should only fuel speculation about a possible third movie in the franchise.

Meanwhile, 'Kung Fu Panda 2' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' also took serious dips, earning $24.3 million and $18.0 million, respectively.

'Bridesmaids' rounded out the top five with a steady $12.1 million, pushing it past the $100 million mark. So, not all bad news for the box office.

[EW.com]