Alien: Covenant

Weekend Box Office: Mother Facehugger

The #1 movie in America is currently Ridley Scott’s return to facehuggers and xenomorphs. However, that may not be the case when the weekend actuals are announced later today.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ put in mad effort to retain its two-week reign at the top of the charts. While it’s barely sitting $1 million behind the latest ‘Alien’ movie, having underestimated the returns of the last two weekends, there’s a good chance that Marvel may end up on top again.

At the moment, ‘Alien: Covenant‘ sits in the top spot thanks to a $36 million debut. While that’s pretty solid, considering how strong the Thursday night and Friday numbers were, it should have finished better. Saturday and Sunday didn’t hold over well, causing the movie to come in $15 million behind the last franchise installment, ‘Prometheus‘. With a production budget of $97 million, the international box office is helping move the sci-fi film to the black. With a one-week head-start internationally, it stands with a ten-day international total of $81.8 million, bringing its worldwide total up to $117.8 million.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘ came in right behind. Weekend #3 resulted in a second place finish of $35 million. The film’s domestic draw is up to $301.7 million, while the foreign earnings are at $430.8 million. With a production budget of $200 million, the worldwide total of $732.5 million has already made Marvel’s latest a bankable feature – but we all knew that was going to happen no matter what.

The new YA romance flick from Warner Bros. opened better than most expected it to, but it still didn’t bring in great numbers. ‘Everything, Everything‘ premiered in third place with $12 million. Fortunately, the teen movie was made on a $10 million budget and marketed for a minimal amount. Even if it drops off heavily in the coming weeks – like most teen movies do –WB will quickly get its money back.

Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn’s R-rated vacation comedy ‘Snatched‘ took a bad trip in its second week. Falling 61% and finishing at #4, it only grossed $7.6 million this weekend, bringing its domestic ten-day total to $32.7 million. The movie’s foreign box office is only up to $7.2 million, giving it a worldwide total of $39.9 million. With a steeper-than-expected $42 million price tag, ‘Snatched’ is on its way to becoming like the title of Schumer’s last movie – a trainwreck.

The fourth ‘Wimpy Kid’ movie underperformed during its opening weekend. From 3,157 screens, ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul‘ landed in the #5 spot with $7.2 million. With a production budget of $22 million, its outlook is not good. Fortunately, book sales will be up a bit and home video will bring in a good amount of money.

Last weekend’s flop ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword‘ crashed even harder over its second week. Dropping 55% in attendance, the $6.8 million second week gross placed it in the #6 spot and only brought its domestic returns up to $27.2 million. With a $175 million budget, not even the $66.2 million earned overseas to date can save it.

Top 10:

1. ‘Alien: Covenant’ (Fox) – $36,000,000

2. ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ (Buena Vista) – $35,062,000

3. ‘Everything, Everything’ (Warner Bros.) – $12,000,000

4. ‘Snatched’ (Fox) – $7,600,000

5. ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul’ (Fox) – $7,200,000

6. ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’ (Warner Bros.) – $6,850,000

7. ‘The Fate of the Furious’ (Universal) – $3,173,565

8. ‘The Boss Baby’ (Fox) – $2,800,000

9. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (Buena Vista) – $2,403,000

10. ‘How to Be a Latin Lover’ (Pantelion) – $2,200,000

2 comments

  1. Guy

    My two chief complaints with Prometheus: 1) The characters were absolute idiots. 2) It felt too much like it was following the Alien formula despite the new name and promises made pre-release.

    Every review I read for Covenant said the characters were slasher film dumb again and the whole marketing campaign screamed that it was leaning into the monster(s) kill a crew Alien formula even more so. I’m still interested in seeing the movie eventually (lookin’ at you, Black Friday sales), but Ridley and Fox did everything they could to convince me to save my theatrical money for something else this summer.

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