‘X-Men’ and ‘Alice’ lead a tepid Memorial Day weekend box office

“X-Men: Apocalypse” disappointed and “Alice Through the Looking Glass” tanked over the Memorial Day weekend, resulting in a tepid holiday box office that, to paraphrase “Alice” author Lewis Carroll, was decidedly lacking in its muchness.

“X-Men” easily won the weekend, with an estimated four-day gross of $80 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to the data firm comScore. That number is down from the franchise’s last entry, “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” which opened with $110.6 million on the 2014 Memorial Day weekend.

But the drop for $178-million-budgeted “X-Men” was small compared with the weekend’s other big debut, “Alice Through the Looking Glass.” That sequel, produced by Disney and directed by James Bobin, opened to $34.2 million, down from the $116-million opening of the 2010 Tim Burton original, “Alice in Wonderland.”

That “Alice” capitalized on the novelty of the 3-D format, then in vogue in the immediate wake of James Cameron’s revolutionary “Avatar.” At the time, movie theater chains also imposed some of the steepest increases in ticket prices in at least a decade, with surcharges on 3-D and 3-D IMAX theaters helping “Alice in Wonderland” to a robust domestic take of $334 million.

“The original ‘Alice’ had a lot of excitement around it because everyone wanted to put on those glasses and see how it looked in 3-D,” said comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “This new movie didn’t have that freshness. There just wasn’t that much passion for people to see it.”

A marketplace crowded with holdover films targeting the same family audience — “The Angry Birds Movie,” “Captain America: Civil War” and Disney’s “The Jungle Book” — may have also been a factor in dampening the prospects of the $170-million sequel.

“Families can only afford — and only have the time — to see one of these movies,” Dergarabedian said. “When you have so many choices, it’s going to fragment how well these films do.”

Johnny Depp, who plays the Mad Hatter in the “Alice” movies, made headlines Friday after his estranged wife, Amber Heard, appeared at Los Angeles Superior Court with a bruised face, asking for — and receiving — a restraining order against the actor. Heard accused Depp of physically abusing her prior to her divorce filing last week.

Depp’s response, through attorney Laura A. Wasser, asserted that Heard is “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.”

Dergarabedian doubts that the bad publicity was much of a factor in the disappointing turnout for “Alice.”

“I’d guess the bad reviews probably scared more people,” Dergarabedian says.

“Alice Through the Looking Glass” scored 34 out of 100 on the review aggregator website Metacritic. Times film critic Justin Chang lamented, “At every turn the filmmakers have simplified, banalized and sentimentalized Alice and her psychological landscape in ways that reek of ignorance at best and cynicism at worst.”

“X-Men: Apocalypse” didn’t do much better with critics, scoring a 52 on Metacritic. The Times’ Kenneth Turan wrote of the movie: “Disorganized but engaging, full of visual pyrotechnics and earnest emotion, it is diverting, if not necessarily convincing.”

By comparison, the year’s biggest commercial hit, Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War,” has a 75.

Positive reviews, along with favorable social media chatter, Dergarabedian says, can mean the difference between a movie like “Civil War” opening and sustaining audience interest and a fast-fading film like “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” which made half of its box office on its opening weekend.

“Captain America: Civil War” remains vital in its fourth week of release. It finished fourth over Memorial Day, adding nearly $20 million for a cumulative total of $377 million.

“The Angry Birds Movie” added $24.6 million in its second weekend for a third-place weekend spot and a $72.3-million total.

The R-rated comedy “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” came in fifth, taking in $11.4 million for a two-week total of $40.7 million.

Whit Stillman’s well-reviewed Jane Austen adaptation “Love & Friendship” expanded in its third weekend, adding 446 theaters and grossing $3.1 million for a three-week total of $4.1 million.

The overall box office for Memorial Day weekend will wind up just over $200 million total, ComScore estimates, better than last year’s “Tomorrowland”-led take of $195 million but far short of the $314.2-million record of 2013, when “Fast & Furious 6” opened.

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UPDATES:

1:55 p.m.: This article was updated to include more background on top finishers and results for more movies.