Thanks to miserable reviews and poor buzz, it earned $155 million domestic ( X-Men earned $157 million in 2000) and $543 million worldwide, including a face-saving $121 million in China. Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse returned to “just the newbies” and plunged compared to Days of Future Past. Cue a $234 million domestic and $746 million worldwide cume. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine was back in a starring role too. The next installment, Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, was both a sequel to X-Men: First Class and a future-tense sequel to Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand, with the original cast (Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen) fighting for the future while the “new cast” (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence) fought to rewrite the past. That wasn’t great for a $160 million movie, but the hope was that the acclaimed 1960’s prequel would reignite interest in the franchise. Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class earned decent reviews and solid buzz on the way to a $146 million domestic and $352 million worldwide cume in June of 2011.
