Fox’s “Fantastic Four” faces an uphill climb at the box office following savage reviews and controversy, picking up $2.7 million from 2,900 Thursday night locations.

The superhero reboot currently holds an abysmal 9% “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and director Josh Trank didn’t help the bad buzz when he tweeted that the film would have enjoyed better notices if the studio hadn’t meddled. Those 140 characters have since been deleted, but not before they went viral.

Despite being a critical piñata and the inspiration for some career harakiri, “Fantastic Four” is expected to top box office charts, making upwards of $40 million. It carries a $120 million pricetag, and stars Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell and Miles Teller, who went in for some digital era ridicule after an Esquire reporter applied the shiv in a profile piece.

It’s a packed weekend at the multiplexes. Also opening this Friday, STX Entertainment’s “The Gift” picked up $585,000 from 1,820 locations. The horror thriller is directed by Joel Edgerton, who co-stars alongside Rebecca Hall and Jason Bateman. It is expected to bring in as much as $8 million, and marks STX Entertainment’s first theatrical release.

Sony’s newly rebooted TriStar label is also in the game, fielding “Ricki and the Flash.” The drama about a rocker (Meryl Streep) and her estranged daughter (real-life progeny Mamie Gummer) is expected to make $8 million. It brought in $200,000 on Thursday from 1,349 locations.

Hoping to get a jump start on the crush of new films, Lionsgate opened animated film “Shaun the Sheep,” on Wednesday to a disappointing $852,000.