The X-Men series as a whole — three original movies, three Wolverine-centric movies, three “the gang as young kids” prequels that I think of as X-Men: Muppet Babies, two Deadpool movies, the Dark Phoenix film, and something called The New Mutants — has made more than $6 billion at the box office. The one that started it all is responsible for only $300 million of that, the smallest gross of any of them except Dark Phoenix (which was about $250M) and the aforementioned New Mutants, which was shot in 2017 and clearly was so underwhelming that they sat on it until August 2020, when they could dump it out there and blame the microscopic box office on Covid. (The best-performing movies are the two Deadpools, then the third Muppet Babies one, then Logan.)

Anyway! It all started just 22 years ago, and the premiere involved a LOT of backless handkerchief shirts and one surprise cravat.

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