Summary
- Deadpool & Wolverine bid farewell to Fox X-Men films, merging into MCU, where nostalgia fuels box office success.
- X-Men movies, with iconic moments and diverse characters, carved their own wondrous world despite flaws.
- From X-2 to Logan, Fox's X-Men films showcased star power, intricate storylines, and memorable performances.
Though the release of Deadpool & Wolverine finally ends the separation of the Fox X-Men movies from the MCU, the history of the separate X-Men Universe will not be forgotten lightly. Despite inconsistencies and confusing timelines, the X-Men movies had plenty of exciting moments and became a wondrous world in their own right.
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From cameo appearances to the closing credits montage, Deadpool & Wolverine as well as the entirety of Marvel Studios have bid a proper farewell to the Fox films. Both Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine began there, and nostalgia for these films is what has helped the impressive early showings at the box office for that new MCU entry, which is packed full of old and new Marvel cameos.
8 X-2
$407 Million
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- Released 2003
- Directed By Bryan Singer
- Starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman & Halle Berry
The sequel to the original Fox X-Men film starred the same excellent cast of mutants under the direction of Charles Xavier. After characters like Rogue took a major position in the plot of the first film, this sequel saw the focus shift to Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, where the focus of Fox’s films would stay throughout much of the next decade-plus.
The interweaving story threads of introducing new characters such as Nightcrawler, seeing the rivalry between humans and mutants heating up and the Phoenix Force being teased made for a truly excellent sequel, while name-brand recognition rising from the great first film led to a strong blockbuster performance for the time. The star power of this rising cast helped, as did iconic performances from the likes of Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Hugh Jackman.
7 The Wolverine
$414 Million
- Released 2013
- Directed By James Mangold
- Starring Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto & Rila Fukushima
After the somewhat maligned Origins: Wolverine film, it was a bold move for Fox to try their hand at another stand-alone Wolverine, but this entry worked out much better. Following the events of The Last Stand, Logan is depressed and plagued by his killing of Jean Grey. While living as a hermit, he is found by an old acquaintance who brings him to Japan to try and convince him to give up his healing abilities.
Based on an old miniseries from Marvel Comics, The Wolverine was a fantastic stand-alone story that deserves to be remembered better than it is. At the time, it was appreciated and did well at the box office, but seemed to be quickly forgotten due to it not fitting in with the younger team X-Men movies that were the main focus of Fox at the time.
6 X-Men: The Last Stand
$460 Million
- Released 2006
- Directed By Brett Ratner
- Starring Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen & Halle Berry
Though it has been looked on less favorably than some other X-Men movies retrospectively, the hype was huge at the time of its release for X-Men: The Last Stand. After the huge success critically and among fans for the first two films, this trilogy wrapper was poised to become a huge victory for Fox, and it performed admirably at the box office, even if reviews were mixed.
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The story involved Jean Grey returning and becoming the Dark Phoenix, leading to her killing both Professor X and Cyclops. Her rage leads her to joining with Magneto and his army, uniting the remaining X-Men in a final attempt to stop her wrath. Though the Dark Phoenix story seemed to be a cursed one for Fox, the box office for The Last Stand was an indication that they should continue past this initial trilogy with the beloved characters.
5 X-Men: Apocalypse
$543 Million
- Released 2016
- Directed By Bryan Singer
- Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender & Jennifer Lawrence
While Fox had a little downturn in some of the prequel movies, particularly First Class, they really brought fans back in with the quality of that film and its sequel, leading to hype being high for major X-Men villain Apocalypse finally making a big screen debut.
Unfortunately, Apocalypse didn’t quite capture the magic of Days of Future Past. But it did ignite the box office well enough to keep the younger cast in a job for another few years, while Oscar Isaac’s villainous Egyptian mutant was left feeling a little blue.
4 Logan
$619 Million
- Released 2017
- Directed By James Mangold
- Starring Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart & Dafne Keen
In what was once thought to be a final hurrah for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Logan partially adapted the Old Man Logan storyline to show a bleak world where Logan was looking after an ageing Charles Xavier and is forced to go on the run with a young girl that shares his powers.
Logan was the most intimate, brutal X-Men film made by Fox, which didn't feel like it belonged in any cinematic universe. It presented a very different sort of world and story, but the emotional rollercoaster rode a huge hype train to become one of Fox’s highest-grossing films as well as a memorable exercise in what Hugh Jackman is truly capable of as an actor.
3 X-Men: Days Of Future Past
$746 Million
- Released 2014
- Directed By Bryan Singer
- Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy & Patrick Stewart
Perhaps the most hype that one of the X-Men team films has ever managed to generate, the blending of the original X-Men characters like Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman alongside the new, younger versions of the characters made for a phenomenal marketing campaign, and a film that was worthy of it.
With the world in tatters, Professor X sends Wolverine back into his younger body in order to fix a mistake that led the world to disaster. Featuring an incredible cast, an excellent story and a blending of generations that worked flawlessly, Days of Future Past remains a true highlight in Fox’s tenure taking care of the X-Men on film.
2 Deadpool
$782 Million
- Released 2016
- Directed By Tim Miller
- Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin & Ed Skrein
The film that Fox never wanted turned into their most successful franchise and character to come from their stewardship of Marvel properties. When Ryan Reynolds appeared as Wade Wilson in Origins: Wolverine, it didn’t seem like the duo would ever get to the point they have today with their smash-hit team-up movie. However, everything changed when a short film featuring Reynolds in full Deadpool costume was leaked “accidentally”.
The social media storm this kicked up led to a full film being released, featuring Reynolds in pitch-perfect form as the Merc With The Mouth. The frenzy of support for the film transformed into one of the biggest box office performances of all time for an R-rated movie, shifting the idea for all studios that superhero movies could only be successful when targeted at families.
1 Deadpool 2
$785 Million
- Released 2018
- Directed By David Leitch
- Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin & Morena Baccarin
However, there was one film from Fox that managed to outdo Deadpool, just about, and that was the sequel. Deadpool 2 was a no-brainer for Fox after the roaring success of the first film, and Ryan Reynolds was all too happy to return and bring even more madness as he brought the time-traveling Cable along for the ride in the form of an angry-looking Josh Brolin.
This duo, along with other great characters like Domino, Juggernaut and Firefist, showed that Fox was willing to give budget and bigger supporting characters to Deadpool, since the sequel was basically a guaranteed success. The marketing campaign around X-Force also helped, despite the team being little more than a hilarious cameo. All this helped lead to Deadpool 2 becoming the most successful film focused on X-Men characters, until perhaps the advent of Deadpool & Wolverine.
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