X-Men Box Office: Worldwide Totals for Every Film

The 13 Fox X-Men films earned about $6.08 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, with the seven main films adding up to $3.06 billion and the six spin-offs to $3.02 billion. These are unadjusted dollars, and they leave out Deadpool & Wolverine, which has its own page at Deadpool & Wolverine. If you want the full title list first, how many X-Men movies there are is answered on the films page, and the X-Men movies hub links to every film.

The seven main films earned about $3.06 billion, and X-Men: Days of Future Past is the biggest of them at $746 million. The run started modestly: X-Men (2000), directed by Bryan Singer, took $296 million worldwide on a $75 million budget, and X2 (2003), also directed by Singer, rose to $408 million on $110 million. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), directed by Brett Ratner, reached $460 million, the highest of the first three, although its $210 million budget was nearly double that of X2. It also finished with $234 million domestic, ahead of Days of Future Past by less than half a million dollars.

The prequel films ran bigger. X-Men: First Class (2011), directed by Matthew Vaughn, made $353 million on a $160 million budget, and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), directed by Bryan Singer, jumped to $746 million on $200 million, with $512 million of that coming from international markets and $234 million from domestic. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), also directed by Singer, took $544 million on $178 million. Dark Phoenix (2019), directed by Simon Kinberg, made $252 million worldwide on a $200 million budget, only $66 million of it domestic.

The six spin-offs earned about $3.02 billion, and Deadpool 2 is the highest grossing film in the whole franchise at $786 million. The Wolverine films grew with each entry: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), directed by Gavin Hood, made $373 million on a $150 million budget, The Wolverine (2013), directed by James Mangold, made $415 million on $120 million, and Logan (2017), also directed by Mangold, made $619 million on $97 million. Anyone following the character can see the order in Wolverine movies in order.

The two Deadpool films are the franchise's most efficient earners. Deadpool (2016), directed by Tim Miller, took $783 million worldwide on a $58 million budget, including $363 million domestic, the highest domestic gross of any X-Men film. Deadpool 2 (2018), directed by David Leitch, edged it by about $3 million with $786 million on $110 million. The New Mutants (2020), directed by Josh Boone, is the low point, with $49 million worldwide against a $67 million budget.

Every gross quoted here follows Box Office Mojo, and The Numbers shows slightly different international and worldwide totals for X-Men (2000), Logan and Deadpool 2. A different tracker can therefore give a total a little above or below $6.08 billion. None of the figures is adjusted for inflation, and the budgets are production budgets rather than marketing costs.

In my opinion, the franchise was a clear box office hit with two real flops, because 11 of the 13 Fox films earned more than twice their budget. A gross is not a profit, since marketing costs and the share kept by theaters sit outside these numbers, but doubling the production budget is a reasonable rough test, and only Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants fall short of it.

Why did Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants miss? Dark Phoenix earned $252 million on a $200 million budget, about 1.3 times its cost, and its $66 million domestic gross was the lowest of any main film. Perhaps franchise fatigue after Apocalypse played a part, because that film had made $544 million on a smaller budget three years earlier. The New Mutants is a different case: Disney announced August 28, 2020 as its release date, after the film had originally been meant for April 2018, according to TheWrap, and it ended up earning only about 73 percent of its budget.

Which films were the best value? The three R-rated films, Deadpool, Logan and Deadpool 2, earned $783 million, $619 million and $786 million, roughly 36 percent of the whole franchise total, on budgets of $58 million, $97 million and $110 million. Paradoxically, the biggest main saga budgets bought the weakest returns: The Last Stand cost $210 million and returned about 2.2 times that, while Dark Phoenix cost $200 million and returned about 1.3 times. Perhaps the clearest lesson is that the franchise made more money per dollar when it spent less, a pattern I think the X-Men movies ranked list backs up on quality as well.

What comes next? Marvel Studios' untitled X-Men film is dated for May 5, 2028 in US theaters, with Jake Schreier directing, according to TheWrap, and that release is covered on the new X-Men movie page. Whatever it earns will be measured against a Fox era total of $6.08 billion, and against Deadpool & Wolverine, which sits outside that total. To follow the saga from the start, use X-Men movies in order, and to see where each film streams, check where to watch X-Men.