Box Office Report: Disney Dominates With ‘Alien: Romulus’ And ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’
Box Office analysis is provided by Daniel Garris of BoxOfficeReport.com.
Weekend Box Office Report: August 16th, 2024 to August 18th, 2024
As had been widely expected, Disney and 20th Century's Alien: Romulus debuted in first place this weekend. The seventh installment of the Alien franchise (the ninth if counting the two Alien vs. Predator films) opened with $42.0 million, which was towards the lower end of consensus expectations. Without taking into account ticket price inflation, Alien: Romulus delivered the second largest opening weekend ever for an Alien film, behind only the $51.05 million start of Prometheus back in June of 2012. Alien: Romulus opened 16.2 percent ahead of the $36.16 million debut of the previous film in the series, Alien: Covenant, back in May of 2017. The lukewarm reception to Alien: Covenant likely was a negative factor when it came to break-out potential for Alien: Romulus this weekend. Alien: Romulus registered the 17th largest unadjusted opening weekend ever for the month of August. The R-rated Alien: Romulus was directed by directed by Fede Álvarez and stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux and Isabela Merced.
Alien: Romulus started out with $18.08 million on Friday (which included an estimated $6.5 million from Thursday preview shows that began at 3PM), declined 24.8 percent on Saturday to take in $13.59 million and was down a similar 24.0 percent on Sunday to gross $10.33 million. Alien: Romulus did display initial front-loading this weekend, as the film had an opening weekend to opening day ratio of 2.32 to 1 and an opening weekend to preview gross ratio of 6.46 to 1. The audience breakdown for Alien: Romulus skewed 70 percent male, 30 percent female, 70 percent over 25 and 29 percent under 25. Alien: Romulus has gone over well with critics and the film also looks to be going over well with audiences after receiving a good B+ rating on CinemaScore. Going forward, perhaps the film's overall reception will help make up for the initial front-loading this weekend. Alien: Romulus received a significant boost from IMAX screens, as the film's estimated $7.3 million domestic IMAX gross this weekend represented 17.4 percent of this weekend's overall domestic gross. All premium formats (including IMAX) were responsible for an estimated 51 percent of this weekend's overall domestic gross for Alien: Romulus.
Internationally, Alien: Romulus debuted higher with an estimated $66.7 million from 49 international markets. That places the global launch for Alien: Romulus at $108.7 million. This weekend's international start for Alien: Romulus was driven by the film's strong $25.7 million start in China. Additional debuts for Alien: Romulus this weekend by international market included $5.4 million in South Korea, $4.8 million in the United Kingdom, $3.8 million in France, $2.8 million in Mexico, $2.3 million in Australia, $2.2 million in Spain, $2.1 million in Germany, $1.3 million in Italy and $1.2 million in Hong Kong. In the coming week, Alien: Romulus will open in India. Alien: Romulus grossed an estimated $9.5 million from international IMAX screens this weekend (including an estimated $5.0 million from China), for a global IMAX launch of $16.8 million.
Disney also took second place this weekend, as Deadpool & Wolverine grossed $30.00 million in its fourth weekend of release. That represented the eleventh largest unadjusted fourth weekend gross of all-time (just behind the $30.31 million fourth weekend gross of fellow Disney release Inside Out 2 earlier this summer). Deadpool & Wolverine declined 44.2 percent from last weekend. That represented a very respectable hold, especially given that Deadpool & Wolverine lost the remainder of its IMAX screens and showtimes to Alien: Romulus this weekend, and that Deadpool & Wolverine also lost a significant percentage of its non-IMAX showtimes from last weekend as well. With an exceptional 24-day domestic gross of $546.82 million, Deadpool & Wolverine currently ranks in 17th place on the all-time unadjusted domestic list. Deadpool & Wolverine is currently the sixth highest grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) ever domestically. With the film's loss of IMAX screens now out of the way, Deadpool & Wolverine will likely hold up better next weekend.
Internationally, Deadpool & Wolverine grossed an estimated $32.9 million this weekend from 52 international markets. That brings the film's international total to $596.8 million and current global haul to a massive $1.144 billion. Totals for Deadpool & Wolverine through Sunday by international market include $61.8 million in the United Kingdom, $57.9 million in China, $41.1 million in Mexico, $35.9 million in Australia, $29.9 million in Germany, $28.5 million in France, $24.3 million in Brazil, $21.5 million in Spain, $18.6 million in India and $17.3 million in Italy.
Sony's It Ends With Us placed in third with $23.81 million. The break-out Blake Lively led romance film declined 52.4 percent in its second weekend of release. That was a nice second weekend hold given that the film is an adaptation of the popular Colleen Hoover romance novel of the same name, which resulted in fans of the novel rushing out to see the film over opening weekend. And like Deadpool & Wolverine this weekend, It Ends With Us also looked to be losing a significant amount of average showtimes per location from last weekend. It Ends With Us looks to be benefiting from strong word of mouth (the film received a healthy A- rating on CinemaScore) and the film also received an additional boost this weekend from opening in an additional 128 locations (for a total of 3,739 locations this weekend). It Ends With Us is on the verge of passing the $100 million domestic mark with a ten-day start of $97.59 million. With the film's second weekend out of the way, It Ends With Us will likely stabilize further next weekend.
It Ends With Us also continued to impress internationally this weekend with an estimated $33.1 million from 52 international markets. Respective totals for It Ends With Us stand at $82.2 million internationally and at $179.8 million globally. The global performance of It Ends With Us is especially impressive with the film's modest production budget in mind. This weekend saw It Ends With Us debut with $4.5 million in Germany and $2.1 million in France. Additional totals for It Ends With Us through Sunday by international market include $14.6 million in the United Kingdom, $9.3 million in Australia, $7.6 million in Mexico, $6.5 million in Brazil and $2.1 million in Saudi Arabia. It Ends With Us will open in Italy this coming Wednesday (August 21).
Universal's Twisters claimed fourth place with $10.00 million. Twisters continued to display very nice holding power this weekend, as the film declined 33.3 percent from last weekend. With a 31-day domestic gross of $238.64 million, the current total gross to opening weekend ratio for Twisters stands at 2.94 to 1. Expect Twisters to continue to hold up well throughout the last couple weeks of the summer moviegoing season. Internationally (where the film is being handled by Warner Bros.), Twisters grossed $4.3 million this weekend from 71 international markets, including a $2.1 million start in South Korea. Respective totals for Twisters stand at $95.1 million internationally and at $333.7 million globally.
Fathom Events' 15th Anniversary re-issue of LAIKA's Coraline was quite impressive this weekend with a fifth place take of $9.61 million. Coraline played in just 1,535 locations this weekend, which gave the stop-motion animated film a healthy per-location average of $6,262 for the frame. With the addition of the film's $2.91 million start on Thursday, the four-day start for Coraline stands at $12.53 million. That is 75.2 percent higher than the $7.15 million Coraline earned during last year's re-issue at this time, which only lasted a total of four days (on two Mondays and two Tuesdays). The lifetime unadjusted total domestic gross for Coraline currently stands at $94.96 million, which is only $5.04 million away from the $100 million domestic mark. Coraline had originally been scheduled to play in theatres through this coming Thursday, but the film's run has been extended for an additional week.
Universal and Illumination's Despicable Me 4 placed in sixth with $6.26 million. That was down a slim 21.6 percent from last weekend, as Despicable Me 4 re-stabilized quite nicely this weekend after losing some relative momentum last weekend. Despicable Me 4 has grossed a strong $340.66 million through 47 days of domestic release. This weekend also saw Despicable Me 4 pass the $500 million international mark. The film grossed $15.8 million internationally this weekend from 82 international markets. That brings the international total for Despicable Me 4 to $508.1 million and the film's global total to $848.8 million.
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