Weekend Box Office: TWISTERS Takes the Market by Storm with $80M Debut

1. Twisters
Universal | NEW
$80.5M Domestic Opening Weekend
$123.2M Global Cume

Early on, the summer 2024 box office was looking like a disaster of its own. Still, once again, we have another over-performing opener on our hands as Universal/Warner Bros.’ late sequel/reboot Twisters whirled its way to #1 with an estimated $80.5M domestic launch on 4,151 screens for a Per Screen Average of $19,393. That’s above our Forecasting Panel’s estimates and enough to break the record set by Roland Emmerich’s 2004 epic The Day After Tomorrow ($68.44M) to become the biggest-ever opening for a natural disaster film. It’s also the third biggest domestic debut of 2024 ahead of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($80M). Many are comparing it to Universal’s Oppenheimer, which opened to $82.4M in this same frame last year. However, the overall box office is down almost -50% from this frame last year since Twisters has nothing on the juggernaut that was “Barbenheimer.”

Here’s how the 3-Day looked:

• Friday – $32.24 million
• Saturday – $27.52 million
• Sunday – $20.74 million

That includes $10.7M in Thursday night previews. The film got decent feedback all around, with 78% Certified Fresh critical on Rotten Tomatoes as well as a 92% audience score and an “A-” CinemaScore, with the studio expecting long-term playability. Post Track data has male/female audiences split right down the middle 50/50, with the age 25+ audience (which had been stewing in animated kids movies for weeks) representing 78% of ticket buyers. Here’s how demographics played out…

• Caucasian – 50%
• Hispanic – 25%
• African American – 11%
• Asian – 9%
• Native American/Other – 6%

The sequel earned $9M from North American IMAX screens, 11.2% of the domestic total, and a further $2.2M from international markets where Warner Bros. is handling instead of Universal. That’s a $12M global IMAX cume, counting the soft opening last weekend. Regarding overseas, we’re looking at $27.1M this weekend on 23,535 screens over 76 markets for a $42.7M international cume and $123.2M global. Top 5 markets were UK ($5.5M), Mexico ($2.5M), Australia ($2M), France ($1.9M), and China ($1.5M). Premium formats were particularly strong in the UK—where Regal’s parent company, Cineworld, has a notable 4DX footprint—representing 20% of gross to date (4DX at 10%, IMAX at 9%). It is still set to launch in Japan and South Korea (August 14) and Japan (August 1), with the latter country pitting Twisters and Inside Out 2 as they open head-to-head.

This is how Twisters compares to recent movies in the disaster genre, most of which haven’t cut it domestically:

• San Andreas (2015) – $54.5M opening / $155.1M cume
• Into the Storm (2014) – $17.3M opening / $42.6M cume
• Geostorm (2017) – $13.7M opening / $33.7M cume
• Moonfall (2022) – $9.8M opening / $19M cume
• The Hurricane Heist (2018) – $3M opening / $6.1M cume

Besides brand recognition (the first Twister was the second-highest-grossing film of 1996), the new movie has proven to be accessible across the country partly by burying climate change discussion in favor of amusement park-style thrills, with director Lee Isaac Chung telling CNN, “I just don’t feel like films are meant to be message-oriented.” That meant whatever your politics are on the subject; audiences were not being given a warning or diatribe on future perils.

Unfortunately, Twisters is not likely to hold like its predecessor, with Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine slashing its way into theaters next weekend, with our early forecast predicting that it may become the first $200 million R-rated opening ever. Luckily, the PG-13 rating for Twisters makes it the best alternative to Deadpool’s gore, F-bombs, and chimichangas.

Other Notable Performances

Universal’s other big title on the market, Despicable Me 4, took in another $23.8M in its third frame, dropping -45% from #1 to #2 with a $259,460,000 million domestic cume. Internationally, it brought in $51.9M in 79 territories and crossed the $500M worldwide with $574.4M. It has now passed the first Despicable Me domestically and internationally ($252.7M/$544.7M).

At #3 is our old reliable Inside Out 2, with the Disney/Pixar phenomenon storing another $12.8M memory at 3,625 locations (-190) for a $596.3M domestic cume and $1.443B WW. Globally, the animated sequel passed Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.405B) and will likely pass the WW cume of Barbie ($1.446B) tomorrow to claim #14. It is currently the #15 film of all-time domestically and is closing in on surpassing Incredibles 2 ($609M) to take the #1 spot for animated movies.

Horror thriller Longlegs continues to perform well for boutique studio Neon despite backlash from first-frame audiences who gave it a “C+” CinemaScore and 63% audience score on RT. Pulling in an estimated $11.7M to take the #4 spot on 2,850 screens (+340 from last week) for a $4,105 PSA, that’s a 48% drop from the unexpected $22.6M opening. With a $44,650,531 million domestic cume, this title is now the 2nd highest-grossing Neon release ever behind Best Picture winner Parasite ($53.3M) and will likely surpass that before its run is done.

Sunday’s Studio Weekend Estimates | Weekend 29 – 2024
Total Domestic Estimates: $145,526,112M | (-46.8% vs 2023)