The numbers are in, and Alien: Romulus is off to scary big start.
Per Deadline, the sci-fi horror flick went above box office projections and opened at $108.2 million worldwide, at time of writing. Its international haul came to $66.7 million, and its overperformance can be owed to China. There, it started at $25.7 million, making it the second-best opening for a Hollywood movie this year. Domestically, it’s made $41.5 million, double the projected high-$20 million range. It also makes for the second-best opening for the entire Alien franchise (behind 2012’s Prometheus, said the Hollywood Reporter), and is the film that finally knocked Deadpool & Wolverine off its number one spot. Not that it matters, since the studio has already done plenty well in theaters this summer with these two movies and Inside Out 2.
Romulus was initially meant for Hulu before Disney decided to bump it to a full theatrical release, and that gamble clearly paid off. People love them some Alien, and it helps that it’s been long enough since Alien: Covenant slithered to theaters in 2017 that people had enough time to miss the series. (Ahead of the new movie, I saw several people on social media rewatching the prior films to get ready for this one.) Add on the fact that trailers for it have been attached to pretty much every big film in the last few months and strong word of mouth, and it’s no wonder the movie’s gone beyond initial expectations.
With two weeks left in August, Romulus has some genre competition in the form of the long-gestating remake of The Crow, Strange Darling, and Blink Twice next week on August 23. On August 30, there’s the AI tech thriller Afraid starring John Cho and Katherine Waterson, and the Casey Affleck and Laurence Fishburne-led Slingshot.
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