1. Alien: Romulus
20th Century Studios | NEW
$41.5M Domestic Opening Weekend
$108.2M Global Cume
20th Century Studios’ Alien: Romulus, the first movie in the 45-year-old franchise to be released under the Disney umbrella, took in $41.5M domestically to shove Deadpool & Wolverine out of the #1 spot. Although audience reaction was very solid, with ComScore’s PostTrak reporting 4/5 stars from general audiences and 83% “positive.”
The “B+” CinemaScore, respectable for a horror title, was a series-best since James Cameron’s Aliens. It also earned a Rotten Tomatoes 81% Certified Fresh critics score and an 86% audience score.
Domestic audiences skewed heavily male, with 70% over 30% female, which is surprising given that Cailee Spaeny was the lead in a historically female-driven franchise. Here’s how age demographics panned out, with a healthy 29% in the younger under-25 demo that may help grow the brand for future movies.
- 13-17 – 5%
- 18-24 – 24%
- 25-34 – 31%
- 35-44 – 19%
- 45-54 – 11%
- 55+ – 9%
Although the Alien movies have never approached their more successful non-R-rated sci-fi brethren like Star Wars, this was the second-highest opening for the franchise. However, the fact that Prometheus was 12 years old means that the overall interest in this series is not on the upswing. Here’s a comparison of all nine films’ opening weekends…
- Prometheus (2012) – $51M opening/$126.4M domestic cume
- Alien: Romulus (2024) – $41M opening
- AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) – $38.2M opening/$80.2M domestic cume
- Alien: Covenant (2017) – $36.1M opening/$74.2M domestic cume
- Alien 3 (1992) – $23.1M opening/$54.9M domestic cume
- Alien: Resurrection (1997) – $16.4M opening/$47.8M domestic cume
- Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem (2007) – $10M opening/$41.7M domestic cume
- Aliens (1986) – $10M opening/$85.1M domestic cume
- Alien (1979) – $3.5M opening/$64.3M domestic cume
Premium Large Format theaters were responsible for 51% of the total box office, including IMAX and specialty formats (4DX, D-Box, ScreenX). IMAX alone took in $16.8M WW, 15.5% of the global opening weekend total, the second-highest ever for the format in August. The domestic take was $7.3M, 17.6% of the domestic total. This means that Disney’s marketing machine successfully turned what was once intended to be a straight-to-Hulu movie into a theatrical destination event.
“Disney’s strategy to lean into IMAX in its marketing paid off in a big way — with our network driving strong double-digit share of the box office around the world, including China,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX. “Fede Álvarez delivered one of the best entries in this series and Disney successfully leveraged IMAX to help put a fresh spin on this beloved, long-running franchise.”
Internationally—where the Alien saga has always performed well—Romulus took in $66.7M to bring the global total to $108.2M. That global number is at the bottom of the worldwide earnings for the nine films, although it should shoot past Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem‘s $128.8M by the next frame. Romulus opened at #1 in France (non-local), Italy, Spain, UK, China and Korea, while the China opening was $25.7M, their second-highest non-local opening of 2024, exceeding the lifetime gross of A Quiet Place: Day One ($18M).
Here are the Top 5 foreign markets:
- China – $25.7M
- Korea – $5.4M
- UK – $4.8M
- France – $3.8M
- Mexico – $2.8M
Other Notable Performances
Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine dropped to #2 in its fourth frame, taking in an estimated $29M (-46% drop) in 3,960 locations for a domestic cume of $545.8M (MCU’s #6 domestic all-time). Globally, the irreverent superhero team-up film now stands at $1,142.6 billion, the #9 MCU movie WW and soon to surpass Captain America: Civil War‘s $1,151.8B.
Sony’s It Ends With Us brought in a projected $24M in its sophomore weekend at #3, a -52% drop from its stellar first frame, where it became 2024’s highest-grossing non-sequel title for its first seven days. This brings the domestic cume to $97.785 million through Sunday from 3,739 locations, meaning Monday will certainly cross the $100M milestone.
It seems Sony has another reason to celebrate as well, with Bad Boys: Ride or Die crossing the $400M mark globally with $400,472,269 million, with domestic just shy of $200M at $193.4M, though the latter likely won’t budge much with the movie already available on digital. That global performance is only around $24M shy of Bad Boys For Life.
Universal’s Despicable Me 4 hit the $500M mark internationally, only the third 2024 title to achieve this after Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2. With a domestic take of $340.4M and the global total of $847.3M it is now the #3 movie of the year on both fronts.
Sunday’s Studio Weekend Estimates | Weekend 33 – 2024
Total Domestic Estimates: $135,306,995M | (+38.9% vs 2023)
| Title | Weekend Estimate | % Change | Locations | Location Change | PSA | Domestic Total | Week | Distributor |
| Alien: Romulus | $41,500,000 | 3,885 | $10,682 | $41,500,000 | 1 | 20th Century… | ||
| Deadpool & Wolverine | $29,000,000 | -46% | 3,960 | -370 | $7,323 | $545,816,895 | 4 | Walt Disney |
| It Ends With Us | $24,000,000 | -52% | 3,739 | 128 | $6,419 | $97,785,000 | 2 | Sony Pictures |
| Twisters | $9,800,000 | -35% | 3,483 | -181 | $2,814 | $238,439,000 | 5 | Universal |
| Coraline | $8,391,479 | 1,535 | $5,467 | $86,592,301 | 811 | Fathom Events | ||
| Despicable Me 4 | $6,000,000 | -25% | 2,788 | -221 | $2,152 | $340,402,000 | 7 | Universal |
| Trap | $3,435,000 | -48% | 2,436 | -745 | $1,410 | $35,214,000 | 3 | Warner Bros. |
| Inside Out 2 | $3,200,000 | -34% | 1,850 | -350 | $1,730 | $642,194,883 | 10 | Walt Disney |
| Borderlands | $2,350,000 | -73% | 3,125 | n/c | $752 | $13,542,237 | 2 | Lionsgate |
| Harold and the Purple Crayon | $1,025,000 | -67% | 1,829 | -1,496 | $560 | $15,716,000 | 3 | Sony Pictures |
| Cuckoo | $866,000 | -71% | 1,402 | -101 | $618 | $5,316,887 | 2 | Neon |
| Longlegs | $721,050 | -63% | 645 | -665 | $1,118 | $72,929,845 | 6 | Neon |
| Dìdi (弟弟) | $700,000 | 8% | 427 | 227 | $1,639 | $2,693,030 | 4 | Focus Features |
| Skincare | $315,894 | 768 | $411 | $315,894 | 1 | IFC Films | ||
| Rob Peace | $253,216 | 526 | $481 | $253,216 | 1 | Republic Pic… | ||
| Sing Sing | $251,955 | 10% | 112 | 73 | $2,250 | $1,176,009 | 6 | A24 |
| A Quiet Place: Day One | $113,000 | -76% | 135 | -333 | $837 | $138,891,000 | 8 | Paramount Pi… |
| CatVideoFest 2024 | $82,655 | -20% | 61 | 1 | $1,355 | $540,527 | 3 | Oscilloscope… |
| Good One | $45,260 | 51% | 13 | 10 | $3,482 | $85,138 | 2 | Metrograph P… |
| Widow Clicquot | $39,000 | -42% | 49 | -32 | $796 | $849,681 | 5 | Vertical Ent… |
| The Good Half | $38,080 | 53 | $718 | $146,162 | 4 | Utopia | ||
| The Firing Squad | $34,000 | -86% | 83 | -357 | $410 | $1,722,275 | 3 | Atlas Distri… |
| Caligula | $30,815 | 13 | $2,370 | $23,430,815 | 2,325 | Drafthouse F… | ||
| Janet Planet | $11,945 | 7% | 11 | -5 | $1,086 | $793,638 | 9 | A24 |
| MaXXXine | $6,951 | -78% | 13 | -16 | $535 | $15,097,633 | 7 | A24 |
| War Game | $6,446 | -61% | 8 | 3 | $806 | $46,955 | 3 | Submarine De… |
| Mountains | $6,119 | 1 | $6,119 | $6,119 | 1 | Music Box Films | ||
| La chimera | $1,200 | 1 | $1,200 | $1,004,503 | 21 | Neon |
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