'Dark Phoenix' Director Simon Kinberg Addresses Film's Box Office Failure

Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg has finally spoken out about his film’s failure at the box office, and it is not a typical, directorial response.

As reported by Screen Rant, Kinberg spoke to KCRW on Friday, detailing the experience of making the film. Though the director was pushing a few boulders uphill, such as having to work with a summer release date, as well as working with Fox while it was being taken over by Disney, the director doesn’t have regrets about the film. “I actually really like the movie, [and] I had an amazing time making the movie,” he stated.

This seems to be the consensus with the cast and crew as well, who have on multiple occasions talked about how much fun it was to make the movie, and how close they all became in the process.

Though this was Kinberg’s directorial debut, he has been part of the franchise since 2006 as a writer and producer. The film got panned by critics and opened to only $33 million in the U.S.--the lowest of any of the X-Men movies.

But Kinberg isn’t using any of the obstacles as an excuse for the film’s disappointment. In the interview with KCRW he stated, “It clearly is a movie that didn’t connect with audiences that didn’t see it; it didn’t connect enough with audiences that did see it. So that’s on me ... I’m saying when a movie doesn’t work, put it on me. I’m the writer-director. The movie didn’t connect with audiences. That’s on me.”

Though Kinberg apparently didn’t get it quite right this time, it is refreshing to hear a director take responsibility.