Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch of Fox singled out 2015’s The Fantastic Four as a major reason for the studio coming $340 million dollars short of the projected $6.42 billion it had been expected to make by Wall Street during the first fiscal quarter of 2015. As reported by The Wrap, Murdoch praised the success of The Martian and the television show Empire, while singling out The Fantastic Four as a major failure for the studio. “Our quarterly results also reflect the expected impact of challenging comparisons for our film studio due to the timing of key releases, as well as the poor performance of The Fantastic Four,” Murdoch said in his statement.
The critical and commercial disaster of Fantastic Four, as well as the recent announcement of two X-Men television shows which Marvel and Fox will co-produce, has led to rampant speculation that the Fantastic Four film rights will soon be back in Marvel’s hands. Whether this is a well-grounded rumor or merely a reflection of fan dreams remains unclear, but either way Fox’s failure with The Fantastic Four will clearly have major ramifications for the future of this franchise.
