X-Men (film) while most other territories would get the film in August. Marvel Studios was depending on "X-Men"s success to ignite other franchise properties ("Spider-Man", "Fantastic Four", "Hulk", and "Daredevil"). "X-Men" grossed $157.3 million in the United States and Canada and $139 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $296.3 million, against a production budget of $75 million, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2000 domestically and ninth worldwide. In North America, "X-Men" opened on Friday, July 14, 2000, and made $20.8 million on its opening day. The film earned $54.5 million in its opening weekend, averaging $18,007 per theater, and
X-Men as X-Men. In 1963, with the success of Spider-Man in "Amazing Fantasy", as well as the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and the Fantastic Four, co-creator Stan Lee wanted to create another group of superheroes but did not want to have to explain how they got their powers. In 2004, Lee recalled, "I couldn't have everybody bitten by a radioactive spider or exposed to a gamma ray explosion. And I took the cowardly way out. I said to myself, 'Why don't I just say they're mutants. They were born that way. In a 1987 interview, Kirby said, The X-Men, I did