X-Men: Apocalypse Tops Memorial Day Weekend Box Office

X-Men: Apocalypse is on pace for a $76 million four-day opening weekend, sharply down from X-Men: Days of Future Past's $115 million Memorial Day weekend but still strong enough to demolish all competition at the domestic box office.

The film was expected to earn $90 million or so at the start of the weekend, but may have been hurt by mediocre reviews. It opened at a huge $100 million overseas last week and is expected to do well again this weekend, so it's likely the film will do fine even if it drops off next week when faced with competition in the form of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.

This week's competition -- Disney's Alice Through the Looking Glass -- provided little challenge at all to Apocalypse at the box office. The sequel to Tim Burton's 2010 Alice in Wonderland was never expected to top the box office, but its $40 million-plus projected opening weekend haul plunged down to less than $35 million after poor reviews and allegations of domestic abuse leveled against star Johnny Depp by his now ex-wife Amber Heard.

Depp, considered one of the most marketable leading men in Hollywood in no small part due to the success of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, endured a string of bombs including The Lone Ranger and Dark Shadows before bouncing back with Into the Woods and Black Mass. He's got another Pirates movie on the horizon, but after the first Alice opened with more than $100 million and earned $300 million domestically, this one cost $170 million and looks likely to be a dud.

The film did perform significantly better overseas, earning about $65 million, but did so without competition from X-Men, which opened with $100 million last weekend.