Normally, I don’t do box office reports. There’s generally a lot of data that goes into that and well…I’m lazy. But this is significant. Alien: Romulus’s current box office numbers reveal that the film has a very strong opening with 41.5 million dollars domestic and a total of 108.2 million world-wide. The film apparently had a production budget of 80 million dollars. So what does that tell us? It tells us that the film made back more than its production budget in less than 4 days. The amount a movie opens to can be a strong indication of how successful it’s going to be over the next couple of weeks. If the film drops off by 50 percent or less over the next week or two, that’s an indication of how strong its legs are. I believe that Romulus is going to have very strong legs, because people have been waiting for an Alien movie that’s more reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s original movie. When you factor in the word-of-mouth about the film and the audience and critic ratings with the movie, this thing is going to be a big success.
Honestly, the franchise needed a huge shot in the arm because the last two Alien movies, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant didn’t do very well. At least, not domestically. Prometheus came in at 126.5 million against a 130 million dollar budget domestically, where Covenant only brought home 74 million against a 90 million dollar budget. Again, domestically. These last two movies bombed in the States, but managed to do a bit better overseas. But when a movie bombs domestically, studios are not really going to be looking at overseas numbers, because those come in way after the domestic release. What a movie makes on its initial release is the most important. It doesn’t have to make back its entire budget on opening weekend, but it needs to come close. A drop-off of 50 percent or less means that people are going back to see it again and/or bringing others with them. Romulus can do that because of the strong word of mouth and critical reception it’s received so far.
So, what does this mean for the Alien franchise moving forward? Great things. As I mentioned in my review, showrunner Noah Hawley has a new series for FX and Hulu coming out next year called Alien: Earth. I think that the positive reception of Romulus is going to give the series a massive boost, because people are now interested in the franchise again. But the opening numbers of this latest film means that we are likely going to see a sequel. Hopefully, it’s a direct sequel, but I’m absolutely certain that another movie is going to be on its way. I don’t know if he was joking about it or not, but Fede Alvarez apparently talked to Dan Trachtenberg about a possible new Alien Vs. Predator film, considering how well received Trachtenberg’s Predator prequel, Prey was received. I fully admit, I enjoyed the first AVP movie, but the second one was too hard to see.
I’m going to be truthful here: A lot of people, including myself, were worried about the future of the Predator and Alien movies when Disney bought 20th Century Fox. There was a lot of concern about Disney watering down movies that had been rated R in the past. Well…I think we can safely say that Disney has no problem with R-rated movies as long as the Disney banner isn’t used. That’s why they kept the 20th Century logo while replacing the Fox part of the logo with Studios. I never thought that I would ever say this: I think the Alien and Predator franchises are going to be just fine under the Disney banner with 20th Century Studios being led by Steve Asbell, if he keeps making the smart decisions that he has been since he took over at 20th Century.
Box Office Reports:
Alien Romulus(Current)
Prometheus
Alien: Covenant