The numbers are mostly in now, and thankfully, X-Men: Days of Future Past was a gamble that has officially paid off for Fox. The new film was a resounding success, bringing in over 90 million dollars and becoming the second best showing ever for the franchise. Furthermore, Days of Future Past is expected to reach roughly $110M for the four-day Friday-to-Monday holiday period, which would elevate it to the fifth best launch ever in this timeframe.

For someone who’s a fan of the series, this is great news, and exactly what the floundering franchise needed. The Last Stand was a box office juggernaut (no pun intended), but was, let’s face it, terrible, and while First Class was a solid film, it failed to bring in the numbers the other installments of the series commanded.

After watching The Amazing Spiderman 2, I was nervous that Days of Future Past would be another disappointment, but it actually met and exceeded my expectations, and the good word of mouth and extremely strong critic reviews are in large part responsible for its stellar box office performance.

Days of Future Past breathed new life into the franchise, both creatively and financially, and it will be exciting to see the next steps are—X-men Apocalypse has already been announced for May 2016.