The past live-action renditions of "Fantastic 4" were lukewarm at most, but with a budget of $120 million, 20th Century Fox, along with the success of recent comic book films, 2015's "Fantastic 4" was supposed to do better than its predecessors. That's becoming more and more unlikely as "Fantastic 4" is on track for "just" $28 million following a modest haul of $11 million on Friday.

As Variety reports, despite a cast filled with hot young stars"”Michael B. Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell"”the movie has failed to be at par with the audience traction superhero movies generally have. The report also notes that the last major superhero release to rake in below $35 million was Sony's "Green Hornet" ($33.5 million in 2011).

Variety columnist Brian Lowry points out that apart from falling below expectations at the box office, "Fantastic 4" has also been "bludgeoned" by critics, while director Josh Trank has implied that the studio was responsible for the film's shortcomings.

Now in its second weekend, "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" is set to go neck-and-neck with "Fantastic 4" for this weekend's No. 1 spot, as it is on pace to make $29 million. As Variety notes, Paramount's Tom Cruise franchise is set to pass $100 million in US grosses by Monday.

Other films this weekend include the STX Entertainment/Blumhouse effort "The Gift," which stars Joel Edgerton and Jason Bateman. The film, which centers on a stalker, pulled in $4 million on Friday, and has been forecast to make $11 million for the weekend, which as Varity notes is higher than anticipated.

Meryl Streep's "Ricki and the Flash" made $2.25 on Friday. The Diablo Cody-written Sony TriStar film is set to be expanded to more than 2,000 theaters next week, after being opened in 1,603 locations this weekend.