“Alien: Romulus” ripped into the domestic box office with $41.5 million, marking the second-highest start in the long-running “Alien” franchise. Those ticket sales were enough for the newest chapter in Disney and 20th Century’s sci-fi horror saga to end the three-week reign of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which just overtook “Joker” as the highest-grossing R-rated movie in history with $1.14 billion.
These achievements are capping off Disney’s stellar summer streak, which ignited with “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (May’s highest grossing movie with $397 million) and continued through “Inside Out 2” (June’s highest grossing movie with $1.597 billion) and “Deadpool & Wolverine” (July’s highest grossing movie with $1.14 billion). The studio earlier this month became the first of 2024 to surpass $3 billion in worldwide ticket sales and should continue to pad that total with “Moana 2” (Nov. 27) and “Mufasa: The Lion King” (Dec. 20) on the calendar through the year’s end. It’s an encouraging turnaround after Disney’s 2023 was comprised of commercial disappointments, such as “The Marvels,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “The Haunted Mansion” remake and the animated “Wish.”
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“Alien: Romulus” collected $66.7 million at the international box office for a global start of $108.2 million. The R-rated movie has been well received by critics (it holds an 82% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences (who awarded the film a “B+” grade on CinemaScore), which bodes well for its theatrical run.
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“This is an excellent opening for a […] film this deep into its series,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “In 1979, the first film elevated the quality of creature filmmaking. 45 years later, the story still resonates. This is elite and impressive business.”
Fede Alvarez (“Don’t Breathe”) directed the seventh installment in the gruesome, otherworldly franchise, which kicked off in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s “Alien.” It cost $80 million and follows a group of young intergalactic colonists (Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux and Isabela Merced among them) who come face to face with a terrifying life form while they’re scavenging a rundown space station. In terms of inaugural ticket sales, “Alien: Romulus” improved upon the start of 2017’s “Alien: Covenant” ($36 million) and 2004’s “Alien vs. Predator” ($38.3 million) but fell short of 2012’s “Prometheus” (a series-best $51 million).
“Alien: Romulus” was the weekend’s only new nationwide release since Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2” (originally dated for Aug. 16) was taken off the calendar. “Chapter 1,” which cost $100 million, misfired in June with a dismal $32 million globally, prompting its backers to halt plans for the sequel’s release. Otherwise, holdover titles rounded out domestic box office charts.
Though it was a close race, “Deadpool & Wolverine” pulled ahead of Sony’s romantic drama “It Ends With Us” to land in second place. Marvel’s superhero adventure, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, added a mighty $29 million in its fourth outing, a 46% dip from last weekend. It has grossed a mammoth $545.8 million in North America and $596.8 million internationally to date.
“It Ends With Us” also scored another big weekend with $24 million from 3,739 theaters in its sophomore frame, declining 52% from its huge $50 million debut. The adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s literary sensation, starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (who also directed), is nearing the $100 million mark domestically with $97.7 million to date. Globally, “It Ends With Us” has earned a remarkable $180 million after only 10 days of release. Sony Pictures and Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios co-financed the film for $25 million.
Universal’s disaster epic “Twisters” landed in fourth place with $9.8 million from 3,483 locations in its fifth weekend in theaters, dropping just 35% from its prior outing. Notably, the film is also available this weekend to rent on premium video-on-demand, which didn’t appear to cut into ticket sales. “Twisters,” led by Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos as storm chasers in central Oklahoma, has generated an impressive $238.4 million in North America and $333.4 million worldwide.
A 15th-anniversary re-release of “Coraline,” Laika’s beloved stop-motion animation fantasy film, rounded out the top five with $8.9 million from 1,535 venues. It has grossed roughly $11.3 million since returning to theaters on Thursday.
Elsewhere, Lionsgate’s video game adaptation “Borderlands” continued to crater at the box office. The dismally reviewed film, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart and Ariana Greenblatt, plummeted to ninth place with $2.35 million from 3,125 theaters in its second weekend of release. So far, “Borderlands” has collected a tragic $13 million in North America. It cost $115 million to produce (a portion of which was covered by international sales, according to the studio) and stands as one of the biggest theatrical misfires of the year.