20th Century Fox

In Marvel Comics, which is owned by Disney, the Avengers defeated the X-Men in a recent crossover known simply as "Avengers vs X-Men." In the box-office battle between Disney's recently dominant Avengers franchise and 20th Century Fox's X-Men, however, the mutants may be making a comeback.

"X-Men: Days Of Future Past," which opened on Friday, is on track to earn the fifth-highest Memorial Day weekend gross at $110 million in the U.S . Although those numbers are not exceptional , it's a decent start, and very strong reviews should help generate a long run. Its timing seems good, too, stealing the spotlight from "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and not facing another comic book movie until "Guardians of the Galaxy" in August. And it's got star power, with Hugh Jackman and Jennifer Lawrence, plus Michael Fassbender, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing and more.

Most importantly, the new X-Men movie appears to be an effective step in launching a new and marketable superhero universe. That is, after all, what every studio has been trying to do since Marvel Studios, which was bought by Mouse House in 2009, launched its popular and prolific Avengers franchise — including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Hulk, and their super team — which has grossed over $6.3 billion since 2008 and is expanding rapidly in spinoffs and sequels. "Marvel's The Avengers" (2012) alone is the third-highest grossing movie ever at $1.5 billion.

Catching Disney has seemed nearly impossible in recent years.

Sony, which licensed Spider-Man from Marvel in the '90s, has released a string of hit movies but gotten mixed critical reception and struggled to launch an expanded universe. "Spider-Man 3" (2007) was widely panned; "The Amazing Spider-Man" (2012) was better; "The Amazing-Spider-Man 2" (2014) was also panned, with critics assailing its lame attempts to set up spinoffs that no one cares about like "The Sinister Six" and "Venom" as part of a plan to release Spider-Man-related movies every year.

Warner Bros., which owns DC Comics characters like Batman, Superman, plus less popular superheroes, has a lot to prove as it relaunches or introduces for the first time all characters but Superman in a sequel to the mediocre "Man of Steel" (2013) called "Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice" (2016).

Fox, which licensed X-Men and Fantastic Four characters from Marvel in the '90s, lost momentum in its X-Men franchise after the high selling but poorly reviewed sequel "X-Men: The Last Stand" (2006) and spinoff "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009). But it quietly started a comeback with retro relaunch "X-Men: First Class" (2011) and an improved sequel for Jackman in "The Wolverine," which were well reviewed and successful at $350 million and $415 million gross but still small by Avengers standards.