Twisters has torn up the North American box office with a mighty estimated $80.5m opening weekend that rode roughshod over pre-opening forecasts of a $50m-plus.
North American distributor Universal said the tentpole delivered the highest debut ever by a natural disaster film, ahead of The Day After Tomorrow on an unadjusted $68.4m in 2004, and scored the third highest opening weekend of 2024 behind Inside Out 2 on $154.2m and Dune: Part Two on $82.5m.
Lee Isaac Chung’s follow-up to his recent awards season darling and Oscar winning Minari centres on storm chasers in Oklahoma and stars man of the moment Glen Powell from Netflix acquisition Hit Man and Sony’s $200m-plus global romantic comedy hit Anyone But You and Daisy Edgar-Jones of Where The Crawdads Sing.
Twisters, which reportedly cost $155m to produce, arrived on an A- CinemaScore in 4,151 theatres for a $19,393 average. It earned $32.2m on Friday, $27.5m on Saturday, and $20.7m on Sunday, and drew an even male-female crowd, while those aged over 25 accounted for 78% of the film’s audience.
Caucasians comprised 50%, followed by the Hispanic demographic on 25%, African Americans on 11%, Asians on 9%, and Native American and others making up 6%. Warner Bros handles the international release.
The campaign positioned Twisters as an original film although it is a sequel to Twister from 1996 starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, and took a long time to come. Box office expert David A. Gross of Franchise Re said sequels on average arrive just over three years after the original.
The 1996 film arrived on an unadjusted $41.1m and went on to earn $241.8m – a target that will take some beating by the new film given that Disney/Marvel opens Deadpool & Wolverine on Friday.
Twisters continues the midsummer box office purple patch after the ongoing march of Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2, Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 4, and outlier hits like Neon’s Longlegs. While gloomy pre-season prognostications seem a little more distant and despite the anticipated release of Deadpool & Wolverine, this summer is still expected to trail that of 2023 given this year’s short supply of films in the wake of the Hollywood strikes.
This was a memorable weekend for Universal as Despicable Me 4 ranked second after an estimated $23.8m propelled the running total after three weekends to $259.5m and close to $600m worldwide.
Inside Out 2 in third place has reached $596.4m after a $12.8m sixth weekend and executives will keep it in theatres until it overtakes Pixar stablemate Incredibles 2 on $608.6m to become the highest grossing animated film of all time in North America on an unadjusted basis. It currently ranks second in the animation pantheon, and is the 15th highest-grossing release of any film in North America. It is also the biggest Walt Disney Animation Studios/ Pixar release ever in Canada.
Meanwhile Neon reported an excellent second session for Longlegs after last weekend’s breakout debut. Osgood Perkins’s horror film starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage ranks fourth after adding $11.7m for a $44.7m running total.
In fifth place is Paramount’s A Quiet Place: Day One on $127.6m from four weekends after a $6.1m weekend haul.
Apple’s romantic comedy Fly Me To The Moon starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum followed up last weekend’s dismal launch with a $3.3m haul via distribution partner Sony Pictures, resulting in $16.4m.
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