Thursday Night Report: ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Grabs $8.2M; ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ Starts with $1.5M

Friday Update: Fox reports this morning that X-Men: Apocalypse scored $8.2 million from opening night shows on Thursday. That’s a healthy start for the anticipated sequel, coming in just ahead of Days of Future Past‘s $8.1 million on the same Memorial Weekend two years ago. However, it should be noted that DOFP‘s shows began at 10pm versus 7pm for Apocalypse. Combined with weaker reviews this time around, we unfortunately don’t expect the latest franchise sequel to hold up as strongly as its predecessor over the long holiday weekend.

Meanwhile, Disney’s Alice Through the Looking Glass pulled $1.5 million in its Thursday night bow. Comparisons are a bit more loose for this film given the broader family appeal, but it does notably come in far behind the $4.2 million launch of Maleficent (which opened the weekend after Memorial Day two years ago). The Alice sequel also trailed the $2.3 million start of last year’s Cinderella and the $1.7 million opening of Zootopia earlier this year. With underwhelming critical reviews in play, the film will be relying heavily upon casual family crowds to drive its holiday opening.

We’ll update with official Friday estimates and early weekend estimates on Saturday morning.