'Men In Black: International' gets battered at the box office

Men In Black: International may have topped the box office charts on its opening weekend, but there's not going to a huge amount to celebrate.

Launching worldwide, it recorded the lowest opening for any movie in the series, and by some distance too.

In the US, the movie made just $28.5 million - around £22.6 million - over its first three days on release, with the first three movies all debuting to at least $50 million (£39.7 million).

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With its international haul included, it managed just over $100 million (£81m), but it now has a mountain to climb.

It's expected that with its production budget of around $110 million (£87m), and around $120 million (£95m) spent on marketing, plus other expenses, it will have to make more than $300 million (£238m) just to break even.

The reboot of the sci-fi franchise, which reunites Thor: Ragnarok stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, alongside Liam Neeson, Rafe Spall, Rebecca Ferguson and Emma Thompson, comes seven years after the reasonably profitable Men In Black 3 (which made $624 million - £495m - in 2012).

Even that movie came a full decade after Men In Black 2, and it appears that affection for the franchise, once headed up by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, may have been rather over-estimated.

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Reviews for this fourth movie have been punishing too, making that $300 million break-even seem a sturdy, possibly insurmountable uphill climb.

Despite some noted chemistry between Thompson and Hemsworth, as seen in Thor, it's taken a pummelling by the critics.

With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 25 percent, The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw branded it 'Meh in Black', calling it ‘a sorry sequel’, while The Times simply advised 'Trust me, it's not for you'.

Men In Black: International is out now across the UK.