X-Men (2000)
The first movie in the X-Men franchise – simply entitled X-Men – is one of a select group of movies (the Blade trilogy, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man etc) that are responsible for the rise of the comic book movie as a genre to the levels it is at now.
The movie introduced a bunch of characters that have since become iconic, such as Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Ian McKellen’s Magneto and Patrick Stewart’s Professor Xavier.
Given the state of the comic book movie genre upon the time of the movie’s release, it was something of a surprise success. A gathering of esteemed actors in such a movie was a refreshing change and the fact that the movie stayed faithful to the comics proved favourable amongst critics.
From a $75 million budget, X-Men earned $296.3 million at the box office and the franchise has only grown to be even stronger ever since (fifteen years and still going strong is nothing to be sniffed at).
