The 2024 summer blockbuster season got off to a slow start, but things turned around in early June and things have been going well ever since. In recent weeks, Shawn Levy’s Deadpool and Wolverine has attracted most of the attention and is in the wake of hits like Kelsey Mann’s Inside Out 2 and Lee Isaac Chung’s Twistersbut now the time has come, the release of Fede Álvarez’ Alien: Romulus has attracted attention with an impressive debut.
There are only a few years left until the 50th anniversary of Ridley Scott’s Foreigner from 1979, but the sci-fi horror franchise seems to be as popular as ever, as the new release starring Cailee Spaeny just had one of the franchise’s best opening weekends. Check out the full top 10 below, then come back for my analysis.
| TITLE | Weekend gross | Gross domestic turnover | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Alien: Romulus* | 41,500,000 USD | 41,500,000 USD | N/A | 3,885 |
| 2. Deadpool and Wolverine | $29,000,000 | 545,816,895 USD | 1 | 3,960 |
| 3. It ends with us | $24,000,000 | $97,785,000 | 2 | 3,739 |
| 4. Twisters | 9,800,000 USD | $238,439,000 | 3 | 3,483 |
| 5. Coralline | 8,391,479 USD | 86,592,301 USD | N/A | 1,535 |
| 6. Despicable Me 4 | 6,000,000 USD | 340,402,000 USD | 5 | 2,788 |
| 7. Trap | $3,435,000 | 35,214,000 USD | 6 | 2,436 |
| 8. Inside Out 2 | 3,200,000 USD | 642,194,883 USD | 7 | 1,850 |
| 9. Borderland | $2,350,000 | 13,542,237 USD | 4 | 3.125 |
| 10th Street 2* | $2,184,000 | $2,184,000 | N/A | 666 |
Alien: Romulus is the box office success with the second best opening weekend in the history of the Alien series
In 2012, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus a pretty high bar for the modern era of Foreigner franchise. Although the film itself divides fans on quality, it was a huge box office hit. It had a bigger budget than any previous installment in the canon, but launched its box office career with a solid $51.1 million in its opening weekend domestically and ended its worldwide theatrical release with a box office gross of $402.4 million.
It is currently unclear whether Alien: Romulus will ultimately be able to deliver such numbers, but it is certainly a good start.
With what we now consider to be the second best debut in the history of Foreigner Franchise, the new R-rated release pushed Deadpool and Wolverine from the top spot at the domestic box office, grossing $41.5 million in its first three days of release (via The Numbers). Without taking inflation into account, it has beaten Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenantwhich grossed $36.2 million when it was released in May 2017.
In the specific context of 2024, it is the 13th biggest opening weekend of the year and has grossed less than Gil Kenan’s Ghostbusters: The Ice Cold Empire (45 million dollars), but more than John Krasinski’s IF (US$33.7 million).
The film really started to gain notoriety last week when critics got the chance to see the film and described it as a successful mix of Foreigner and James Cameron’s Aliens (I gave it three and a half stars in my Alien: Romulus CinemaBlend review, which clearly declares it the third best film in the series). The CinemaScore polls also deliver positive results, with audiences giving the genre release, which was released in August, a grade of “B+”.
As good as Alien: Romulus in the U.S. and Canada over the past three days, the really significant business the film is doing is overseas. Last week, Deadline reported projections that said Fede Álvarez’s film would gross $75 million worldwide in its first Friday-through-Sunday opening. The estimates were spot on domestically, as it assumed the film would sell enough tickets to bring in $40 million, but the hunger for the feature overseas was evidently underestimated. While the new 2024 film was thought to bring in $35 million in those markets, it actually brought in $66.7 million.
So instead of earning $75 million so far, Alien: RomulusThe total for the three days is $108.2 million.
As the film’s last major franchise blockbuster of the summer, it could still make quite a bit of money in the coming weeks. Its success will likely rely heavily on word of mouth, so the weekend-to-weekend decline in box office numbers will surely be given a lot of weight when reporting box office results next Sunday.
Deadpool & Wolverine boosts its numbers as biggest worldwide R-rated release of all time
It was pretty obvious that last weekend we Deadpool and WolverineThe time at the top of the box office came to an end, thanks to the arrival of Alien: Romulusbut it’s worth noting that the release of a new R-rated genre title from the same parent company didn’t completely quench the hunger for Marvel Studios’ latest film. The blockbuster continues to perform exceptionally well domestically, adding $29 million to its box office.
Deadpool and Wolverine has grossed $545.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and $596.8 million abroad, for a worldwide total of $1.14 billion… and that’s in its fourth week of release. The film is now by far the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, having grossed more than Todd Phillips’ joker – which grossed a remarkable $1.06 billion in 2019.
The film has entered the top 10 worldwide box office releases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has now overtaken Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Far From Home. It only needs to gross $10 million more to surpass Joe and Anthony Russo’s earnings. Captain America: Civil War. As I’ve noted before in this column, it wouldn’t be a surprise if this success ultimately changes the franchise’s stance toward more regular production of R-rated films.
Laika’s Coraline lands in the top 5 when it is re-released in cinemas
Finally, I would like to briefly mention Henry Selick’s Coralline not just in the top 10 of this week’s box office charts, but in the top 5. Fathom Events brought the stop-motion film Laika back to theaters (1,535 theaters, to be exact) last Friday to celebrate its 15th anniversary, and it’s been a huge success. While the film only grossed $16.8 million in its opening weekend in 2009, the special re-release brought in exactly half that – $8.4 million – over the last three days. There’s clearly a whole lot of love for this delightful slice of horror… and we’re not even technically in spooky season yet.
Looking to the future, we will see Alien: Romulus will try to keep its place at the top of the box office charts next Friday when it competes with new releases such as Zoë Kravitz’ Flash twice and Rupert Sanders’ remake of The Crow starring Bill Skarsgård. Be sure to check back here at CinemaBlend next Sunday to see what happens next in the top 10, and to discover all the titles coming out in the coming weeks and months, visit our 2024 movie release calendar.
