I don't know why everyone at Fox felt it was necessary to go so extreme with the reinvention and veer off course from an origin story, power set and dynamics that have endured for more than a half century. Piling everything in and ballooning the budget to $300M would not necessarily have made a better movie. It's funny how all these geniuses, including Trank and Landis, are now jumping in with their scripts and treatments as if it would have made a difference. There are a few decent ideas here and there (Landis talked about a SpaceX type of flight, which would have updated the origin but still stayed true, but the rest of his ideas sounded like crapola-- for ex. Doom would have been the good guy). The fact of the matter is that they had alienated the fanbase from the get-go and thumbed their noses at Marvel, which is currently a much loved company whether Fox likes it or not. For some reason, the Fox cronies were convinced they were so much smarter. Yet Marvel, which has stuck closely to the origin stories of its characters, has managed to produce hit after hit, including the virtually unknown superhero, Ant-Man, which has grossed more than $160M domestic and almost $200M international. While Fox's FF is struggling to reach $50M domestic and barely $75M international.
You would think some heads would be rolling after this catastrophe, although I'm sure there are folks trying to throw others under the bus. This whole thing has just been an absolute exercise in frustration, because just about everyone on the planet knows the franchise would likely be much better served at Marvel-- except the ********s at Fox. Not to say Marvel would be the panacea, because no doubt they would make decisions that might disappoint or tick off some fans (and trolls). That said I could definitely see how classic FF (not Ultimate FF) would fit in perfectly with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
I was reading the other day someone saying that Marvel should reboot the comic now that the movie has failed. I say just the opposite. If Fox continues to stubbornly hold onto the franchise and not play nice by either reverting or sharing, Marvel should absolutely continue to starve the team while keeping the characters in play. If Fox thinks that not as many people are as familiar with the team now, imagine another three years with no FF comics, merchandise, cartoons, toys, theme park rides, etc. The brand will continue to diminish to the point that FF will feel more like some kind of an indy comic to the core movie-going audience as opposed to one of Marvel's biggest flagships. And do they really want to put another $150M behind that? This is one of those situations where the game is long over and the outcome is academic, but one side is continuing to slug away. Not to mention, while X-Men Apocalypse surely won't suffer the same implosion as FF, having the Marvel machine behind the upcoming flick could help it do even better, plus they stand to make tens of millions more dollars in tie-ins and merchandising if Marvel takes its foot off the airhose. If I were Fox, as much as it would hurt my ego, I would be dragging my butt to the negotiating table today.
My opening salvo would be a $250 million partial buyback; 50% co-producing/profit share arrangement; 25% share of cinematic FF licensing and merchandising revenue; Marvel fully supports the FF comics and returns the team to prominence in the overall Marvel branding (i.e. t-shirts, toys, video games, etc.); Marvel fully supports the X-Men comics, toys, games and other licensing, and returns the characters to prominence in overall Marvel branding; Marvel allows X-Teams Cinematic Universe (XCU) licensing and merchandising with Fox receiving a 75% share of XCU licensing profits; Fox is granted the rights to build an X-Teams/Mutant Television Universe including live action and animated series and direct-to-video animated movies. Crossover potential of the XCU into the MCU and vice-versa TBD by 2017.
Outrageous I know. But figure both parties would settle for something inbetween.