There's a reason we've seen at least two superhero films released every year in the past decade: They're fun, action-packed and tend to provide new cinematic experiences. People know and expect this, so we flood theaters all over the world, watch film trailers dozens of times in anticipation, and examine every detail to try and guess what each new film has in store. And yet, somehow, there seems to be very little of that surrounding X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

Make no mistake, fans are definitely talking about the film, but they don't seem to have many positive things to say. There are rumors circulating about the movie's plot, with general assumptions being made based on the two trailers that have been released. It's everything you'd expect from the Internet, but with little to reaction from audiences eager to actually see the sequel. It seems strange... until you take a look at all of the X-Men films so far. Then, it then becomes clear that X-Men: Dark Phoenix was never going to garner the level of interest Fox hoped for, no matter how much effort was put into its marketing.

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Jean Grey using the Phoenix Force in X-Men Apocalypse

It's worth noting that there are certain films we will not be taking into account. So -- despite the fact that it's set in the same universe -- we won't be looking at Deadpool (directed by Tim Miller), its sequel or Logan (directed by James Mangold) since the success of those films was never dependent on the success of the rest of the franchise.

Those three outliers aside, the franchise had a decent start with X-Men (directed by Bryan Singer) in 2000. The film started quite the legacy, giving us Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Patrick Stewart as Professor X, an intriguing story and unique new characters. It proved to the world that the genre could be and should be taken seriously, opening the floodgates to the wide variety of superhero films we see today.

Its critical reception, though positive, and its financial performance don't quite reflect its level of importance, however. Because of the general view of superhero films back then, it's understandable that its box office performance was somewhat underwhelming, grossing just $296 million worldwide. Still, it was a promising start, so what happened with the rest of the franchise?

NEXT PAGE: Where Fox's X-Men Franchise Went Wrong

X-Men-The-Last-Stand-Phoenix

The sequel, X2: X-Men United (also directed by Bryan Singer) was largely praised by critics as well-written, balanced and well-acted. It performed much better at the box office than its predecessor, earning $407 million worldwide. Just two films in, and the franchise seemed to be slowly but steadily growing in popularity. Unfortunately, X2 would prove to be the best of the franchise, both critically and financially.

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X-Men: The Last Stand (directed by Brett Ratner) was a disaster. This loose adaptation of "The Dark Phoenix Saga" (written by Chris Claremont, illustrated by Dave Cockrum and John Byrne) and the "Gifted" story arc (written by Joss Whedon with art by John Cassaday) managed to attract a marginally larger audience that resulted in a box office performance of $459 million worldwide. Alas, the film received a mixed response from both critics and audiences, who felt that it was the weakest installment in the trilogy, a movie that wasted the elements it adapted from the comics. Needless to say, The Last Stand left a bad taste in the mouths of X-Men fans everywhere, and is undoubtedly one of the reasons why the upcoming Dark Phoenix isn't drawing much positive buzz.

From then on, there was a clear attempt to take things in a different direction with X-Men Origins: Wolverine (directed by Gavin Hood) and X-Men: First Class (directed by Matthew Vaughn), neither of which quite clicked. They both performed more or less as well as their predecessors, though First Class seemed to satisfy critics and audiences just a bit more.

The Wolverine (directed by James Mangold), released in 2013, had every chance at performing better than the films that had come before it. This was a time when interest in the superhero genre was really exploding, and Wolverine is one of the most popular superheroes in the world. Even so, the film stalled at $414 million at the box office, a modest success by superhero movie standards, and the somewhat mediocre critical reception that the X-Men franchise couldn't seem to escape.

Things seemed to look up with X-Men: Days of Future Past (directed by Bryan Singer), which seemed to do everything right, combining the cast of First Class with that of the originals and placing Wolverine front and center. With its time-jumping plot, the film sought to rectify the inconsistencies by creating an alternate timeline. This was where the franchise promised its fans that things were going to change for the better. Audiences were definitely interested, and the film earned almost $748 million at the box office, with both critics and audiences responding positively.

Then X-Men: Apocalypse (also directed by Bryan Singer) happened.

Even before the film premiered, interest in the franchise had begun to fade, partly due to the fact that fans had mixed feelings about the First Class cast and storyline, and partly because everyone had gotten early glimpses at Oscar Isaac in costume as Apocalypse and were deeply disappointed when they compared it to En Sabah Nur in the comics. The film received mixed reviews from both critics and audiences, who seemed to agree that the film was simply uninspired and clumsy. It managed to gross $543 million at the box office, indicating a return to the standards of the 2000s for the franchise.

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Consider what all this means for the upcoming film. The release of Dark Phoenix has already been delayed repeatedly due to rewrites and reshoots. Regardless of whether those changes make Kinseberg's film stronger, the fact of the matter is that people are growing tired of the new X-Men and aren't interested in seeing them on the big screen. Fans are already wary of any adaptation of the Dark Phoenix storyline this franchise can offer, and on top of all that, fans are well aware that Disney will be acquiring Fox in the very near future, meaning that this film ultimately doesn't matter. It's the final chapter of what has generally been a lackluster franchise.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix may be end up being a great film; there's no way to know until people have seen it. However, unless it's absolutely perfect, the film is unlikely to gross much higher than $500 million at the box office, and is unlikely to impress critics and audiences, many of which might have already made up their minds before walking into the theater. None of that will necessarily be the fault of Simon Kinsberg or the cast, of course; it'll simply be the result of every X-Men film that came before it.

Written and directed by X-franchise veteran Simon Kinberg, Dark Phoenix stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters and Jessica Chastain. The film is scheduled to be released on June 7.