Alien: Romulus is off to a solid start with $6.5M previews. Critics and audience scores remain high on Rotten Tomatoes at 82% and 88% for the Fede Alvarez directed take of the Ridley Scott production.
In regards to comps Alien: Romulus isn’t far from A Quiet Place: Part Two ($6.7M previews, $52M opening), Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ($6.6M, $58M opening), and Bad Boys: Ride or Die ($6.1M, $57M). The expectation is for this Cailee Spaeny starring installment, which takes place between Alien and Aliens to open to $40M+ in first place indicating a great late summer hit which can roll us into September before Warner Bros’ Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice takes over. The pic is booked at 3,885 theaters, which includes 400 Imax, 900 PLFs, 275 D-Box/4D motion screens and 90 ScreenX locales.
Meanwhile, Blake Lively won at the daily box office again for the fourth time this week over Ryan Reynolds; It Ends With Us making $4.9M to Deadpool & Wolverine‘s $4.56M on Thursday. It Ends With Us posted the highest seven-day take for a non-sequel this year grossing $73.7M. D&W‘s running total stands at $516.7M. The Shawn Levy directed, produced and co-written title is looking at grossing another $30M this weekend. It Ends With Us is expected to hold with around $22M, maybe more.
Fathom’s re-release of Coraline at 1,570 theaters made $3.1M yesterday. Universal’s Twisters, which is already on digital sell through and rental if you can believe it, grossed $1.3M at 3,664 theaters, -7% from Wednesday, for a fourth week take of $21.3M and running total of $228.6M.
In fifth was Uni’s Illumination Despicable Me 4 at 3,009 with a sixth week take of $12.2M, running cume of $334.4M after a $878K Thursday, -6% from Wednesday.
Lionsgate’s very expensive $110M-$120M bomb Borderlands ends its first week with $11.1M after a $416K Thursday, -22%.