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Whoops.

Kim Hollis: A BOP prognosticator who shall remain nameless predicted that X-Files: I Want to Believe would open to $45 million. In reality, the movie debuted with only $10.0 million. Are you surprised how poorly this title has performed?

Les Winan: With regard to that prediction, we haven't seen something so off since Ronald Reagan claimed "I don't recall" during the Iran-Contra hearings.

Calvin Trager: At least that Reagan could blame the Alzheimer's.

David Mumpower: While I, like all of our readers, got a big laugh out of Reagen's prediction, none of us could have been prepared for a performance this atrocious. If we adjust for inflation for the first X-Files movie, it would have opened to $45.5 million in 2008 dollars. This means the second X-Files movie lost a stunning 77.6% from the original. Speed 2: Cruise Control did better than that. Dumb and Dumberer did better than that. Son of the Mask effectively matched it. We're talking about the all-time dregs of movie sequel performances here. I don't think anyone fully appreciated the potential degree of failure here. The only positive is that its production budget of $30 million is minuscule by modern standards. So, the movie won't lose a ton.

Tim Briody: They simply waited far too long. Anybody involved in this that is responsible for the huge gap between the two movies, and also between the series ending and this movie should be publicly ridiculed. A series that could have chugged along for several profitable installments is now beyond dead.

Pete Kilmer: Tim is right. They waited too long, the story had nothing to do with the TV series as whole, and it just wasn't scary - all valid reasons for while this didn't work. And it's a damned shame, because the X-Files property could have been a terrific movie franchise that explored the dark heart of terror, crime and all things alien if they wanted it to.

David Mumpower: For the record, I think this is exactly the problem they had with marketing the X-Files sequel. The storyline here is ridiculously dark and shockingly existential. Having seen the movie, I honestly don't know how they could have advertised it effectively without giving away the secret. Without spoiling, it's a modern spin on a horror classic, but the reveal of this is methodical to a point of fault. This is a good idea for an episode, but it probably wasn't "big" enough for a new movie.

Reagen Sulewski: Obviously I screwed the pooch here, but I'm doing here what all great field marshals do - passing the buck. I put the blame squarely on misplaced respect for Fox's marketing department. Way to make me guess wrong, Fox.





Jamie Ruccio: This result didn't surprise me in the least. I wish I had proclaimed it louder and I'm hoping that some of you may recall that I was talking about a $10 million opening for this. If nothing else my girlfriend and my Scully Doll will back me up. As mentioned, too much time had elapsed from the end of the series until this movie.Couple that with the weird secrecy regarding plot details (either they knew they had a bomb on their hands or were entirely too stupid and arrogant to realize that very few, outside of the last remaining die-hards, cared about another X-Files movie), the utterly ordinary and infrequent commercials and the fact that the audience moved on...this opening didn't surprise me. I was into the "X-Files" early on. It was on during my early 20s and I'd stay home Friday nights to watch it before going out. I was known as the kid who wouldn't go out until X-Files was over. They had me right through most of the run (until the wheels started to fall off). I even went to the first movie and was fairly excited about it. When I first saw the commercials for the new movie I was shockingly unmotivated to see this one. The fact that they apparently didn't treat this movie as a do-over for the first one and really work the mythology over proves they misjudged the audience. They got the opening they deserved.

Brandon Scott: Whoever thought this would open four to five times bigger won't "want to believe this", but to answer the question, I'm not surprised by this debut. The program has been out of the public consciousness for a while now, with the first movie being a decade old. The trailers did absolutely nothing to inspire those on the fringe to take the plunge. Predicting it to open at $45 million is an unsolved mystery....that should be locked in an x-file, never to be opened again.

Daron Aldridge: The title apparently was abbreviated from I Want to Believe People Still Want Another X-Files Movie. Honestly, I thought it would open with a number comparable to Step Brothers. Chris Carter has to ask himself if those final Mulder-free and Mulder-lite seasons soured the audience so badly that they couldn't care less about the franchise. At least, Fox (the studio and not the character) kept the budget to $30 million.

Scott Lumley: $10 million seems about right. There's a moment and when it passes it's gone. For the X-files, that moment was about seven years ago.

Jason Lee: I'm surprised, disappointed and disheartened. Even in my worst nightmares, I thought X-Files would AT LEAST do $15 million. I'm really scared that when the actuals come out, X-Files will be under $10 million. There go my hopes for another X-Files movie in 2012.

Sean Collier: Joker: "How about a magic trick?" (David Duchovny approaches) *SLAM*

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