I feel bad for X-Files fans. I really do. Having never been a follower of the show, I can't say I was very emotionally invested when the sequel no one was asking for, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, pulled a Hindenberg at the box office last summer, raking in a meager $21 million domestic against a $30 million budget. In fact, I would've been surprised by any other outcome.But this week, Chris Carter's co-producer and co-writer Frank Spotnitz added salt to the wound by going on a delusional rant in an interview with the Toronto Sun. See, it wasn't X-Files' fault that no one came out to see the flick. Whose fault was it? Why, Batman's, of course:
"Our theatrical performance this past summer notwithstanding, I think The X-Files is still a natural for theatrical release. We just opened the wrong week. The week after The Dark Knight, I think, was just not the right week for us."I think it was especially brutal to us because we weren't counter-programming. We weren't Mamma Mia! or Step Brothers. We were a little dark scary movie coming in the fumes, in the exhaust, of this mammoth machine that was The Dark Knight. And I don't think we had a chance!"
See, kids? It had nothing to do with the ill will generated among the fan base by a disastrous final season on television. Or with the ten year gap since the last X-Files movie, which made almost ten times as much. Or with the X-Files' almost complete disappearance from the popular consciousness since the series ended. Or with the decision not to make the film about the main storyline that the fans actually cared about. Or with the fact that The Dark Knight was one of the best-reviewed movies of the year, and I Want to Believe...wasn't.
No, they just picked the wrong weekend. I'm sure X-Files 3: The Search for an Audience will do much better.
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