“The Wolverine,” the Marvel superhero film featuring Hugh Jackman, was the top weekend movie in the US and Canadian theatres, with US$55 million in sales for 21st Century Fox Inc. The comic-book superheroes from Walt Disney Co.-owned Marvel, which have proven a reliable franchise for studios in the past, stumbled as “The Wolverine” missed forecasts. The film was predicted to take in between US$70 million to US$75.4 million, according to industry estimates. Fox has released six films about the X-Men mutants, which include the Wolverine.

Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution for 20th Century Fox, said the opening was below its predecessor, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” four years ago.

“Most sequels tend to open a little bit less than their predecessors in the US, but internationally they tend to open bigger,” he said. The movie has grossed US$86.1 million internationally, he said, above all prior X-Men openings.

Summer Blockbuster

In the latest picture, the brooding Wolverine, also known as Logan, travels to Japan and becomes entangled in a crisis involving the family patriarch he rescued from the radiation of Nagasaki years earlier. The story is taken from celebrated Marvel Comics episodes from the early 1980s, according to Bloomberg News critic Craig Seligman.

“‘The Wolverine’ offers about the most that you can ask from a summer blockbuster,” Seligman wrote. “It has enough story to be involving, and the fights transcend mere machinery. In its astronomically budgeted, effects-laden way, it’s appealingly modest.”

The film cost about US$120 million to produce, according to researcher Box Office Mojo, and needs about US$500 million in worldwide ticket sales to rate as a success for Fox, according to Boxoffice.com. That would put it ahead of previous X-Men movies. The production budget doesn’t include marketing costs. Studios typically split the proceeds with exhibitors.