“Alien: Covenant” to Scare Its Way to the Top of the Box Office and Beat “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”
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Alien: Covenant |
$41.7 million |
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 |
$36 million |
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Everything, Everything |
$10.8 million |
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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul |
$10 million |
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Snatched |
$9 million |
The latest installment in the Alien franchise, Alien: Covenant, opens this weekend, helmed by original creator Ridley Scott, and is poised to knock Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 off its throne. Predictions have the film opening north of $40 million, which will make it the second-highest opening in the entire franchise, besting Alien Vs. Predator at $38.2 million and coming in behind its predecessor, 2012’s Prometheus, at $51 million. Interestingly, while Prometheus may have the best opening of the franchise, fans and critics’ mixed reaction to the film could also signal why Covenant won’t be able to surpass its opening. With Prometheus, audiences were excited to explore new elements of this world but after the mixed reactions, they might not be as willing to give Covenant a try. That, and the confusing timeline of prequels, sequels, and more could also be off-putting to audiences.
Still, despite these elements going against Covenant, it’s still expected to come out on top at the box office this weekend and its second-highest opening in the franchise is nothing to sneer at. Reviews are generally more favorable than they were for Prometheus as well so if word-of-mouth does its job, it could also have good legs over the next several weeks. What also helps is that Covenant was made for $97 million as opposed to Prometheus’ $130 million and is also opening in 400 more theaters than its predecessor. Prometheus is the only film in the franchise so far to cross $100 million domestically and it’s likely Covenant will follow in its footsteps but the real story will be how far it will go and if it can become the highest-grossing installment in the franchise. Internationally, Covenant has already made $46.6 million.
Next up will be the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, set to drop a little under 50 percent in its third week. Domestically, the film is at $263 million and worldwide it’s just under $650 million as it continues to eye a $1 billion global total. It’s currently the eighth-highest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, both domestically and globally. However, it still has several more weeks ahead of it to increase its box office and it’s looking likely that it will jump several spots. It’s going at a better pace than its predecessor, although the first Guardians film also didn’t go up against films like Alien: Covenant or a handful of other big films opening in the coming weeks like Baywatch, Pirates of the Caribbean 5, and Wonder Woman at the start of June.
Opening Weekend | Current Gross | Facebook Likes | Tweets | |
Alient: Covenant | N/A | N/A | 4,578,224 | 139,857 |
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | $146.5m | $263m | 10,656 | 128,335 |
Everything, Everything | N/A | N/A | 499,577 | 31,104 |
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul | N/A | N/A | 2,635,561 | 7,330 |
Snatched | $19.5m | $24.1m | N/A | N/A |
The next three films to round out the top five could end up in any order — two are newcomers, the other in its second week, and all are expected to bring in between $8 and $10 million. Everything, Everything is the latest YA romance film based on a bestselling book by Nicola Yoon and due to its decent marketing campaign and the buzz around the film, it should do well enough this weekend to top its two competitors. While other romance films recently like The Space Between Us have floundered, a film more directly like this one, last year’s Me Before You, opened to $18.7 million in 100 fewer theaters than Everything, Everything. There are numerous articles circulating the internet about the film and the excitement for it, as well as the fact that it appeals to a wide audience, from young girls to mothers and young adults.
Next up should be the final new film of the weekend, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul. While it’s a family film and those tend to do well, the fact of the matter is that this film frankly doesn’t have a great reputation as it is and as a franchise, it’s not particularly buzzy. This is the fourth film in the franchise and each subsequent film after the first has made less money in their opening weekends. Where the franchise started north of $20 million, the last film, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, which opened in 2012, only made $14 million in its premiere weekend and made a total of $49 million when all was said and done.
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Rotten Tomatoes | IMDb | Metacritic | ||
Critics | Users | Stars | ||
Alien: Covenant | 75 | N/A | 7.0 | 67 |
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | 81 | 90 | 8.1 | 67 |
Everything, Everything | 45 | N/A | 6.8 | 51 |
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul | 23 | N/A | 3.7 | 47 |
Snatched | 34 | 35 | 3.2 | 46 |
Rounding out the top five will be Snatched, which, after a decent opening weekend, will likely drop a little over 50 percent. What is mostly working against this film are the facts that a) it hasn’t received the best reviews or reactions and b) there are enough new films opening this weekend to take away from what it could have made this weekend with less competition. The film has made $24.1 million total so far on a $42 million budget so it certainly has a ways to go to be a profit-maker for Fox, but it hasn’t totally flopped (yet).
Meanwhile, other films in the top ten this weekend include the certifiable flop King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which has only made $55 million worldwide on a $175 million budget.
(Sources: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com, rottentomatoes.com, imdb.com, metacritic.com. Tweets and Likes represent figures for this week only. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed. Tracking Board does not report Rotten Tomatoes user ratings for movies that have not yet seen wide release.)
Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor