X-Men: First Class opened this weekend to first place and an estimated $56 million domestically.  The movie opened strong Thursday night even besting Thor‘s opening by opening with $3.4 million from the midnight showings, but fell short of that movies $65.7 million debut.  Even with positive reviews, the movie trailed badly compared to the other X-Men movies.

X2: X-Men United and X-Men: Origins: Wolverine both debuted to around $85 million, while X-Men: The Last Stand brought in $102 million.  The movie did beat the original X-Men film which debuted with $54.4 million in 2000, but if that were adjusted for inflation the movie would be $70 million today.

It’s projected the movie will end with between $140 million to $160 million but it depends how well word of mouth pushes the film.   A good sign is the movie only fell 5% from Friday to Saturday, which is a good sign. So far the new X-Men film has attracted an audience that was predominantly male (58%) and older (54% over 25).  With both positive reviews from fans and critics it’s baffling as to exactly why the movie fell short.