“Alien: Covenant” Defeats “Guardians 2” Over a Sluggish Weekend, “Beauty and the Beast” Becomes 10th Highest Film of All Time

	Film	Weekend	Opening Weekend	Current Gross
	Alien: Covenant	$36.1m	$36.1m	$36.1m
	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	$34.6m	$146.5m	$301.3m
	Everything, Everything	$11.7m	$11.7m	$11.7m
	Snatched	$7.8m	$19.5m	$33m
	King Arthur: Legend of the Sword	$7.1m	$15.3m	$27.5m

The weekend went more or less as predicted — except with smaller numbers than expected, making for a particularly anti-climactic three-day box office. The weekend was only $7 million less than the same weekend last year, but given it was a weekend with numerous blockbusters, including the opening weekend for a film from a popular franchise, it is somewhat surprising. However, when you dig deeper into Alien: Covenant, which opened to $36 million, not cracking the $40 million it was expected to open with, the writing was clearly on the wall.

Covenant became the third-highest opening in the franchise, coming in behind its predecessor Prometheus at $51 million and Alien Vs. Predator at $38 million. Should it prove to have decent legs in the coming weeks, it should prove to be one of the better performing films in the franchise as a whole. Worldwide, the film is at $117 million and the seventh-highest film in the franchise. Unfortunately, even with good reviews from critics for Covenant, the film seemed destined to flounder. The marketing was directed primarily at core fans of the Alien universe and did not try to reach mass audiences, either because Fox simply chose not to or because they didn’t know how to. After all, one of the biggest criticisms of this franchise is its confusing timeline and inaccessible storyline. Unfortunately, the studio definitely paid for it over the weekend. With a $97 million budget, it should be able to turn a profit, but it all depend on how the film does going forward and if word-of-mouth can help it out.

20th Century Fox

Next, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 came in second, although closer on Alien: Covenant‘s tail than expected. The film has now crossed $300 million and is a little over $730 million worldwide. It’s the eighth-highest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, just $11 million away from surpassing Iron Man 2, and then just another $6 million from passing Iron Man. It’s still $30 million away from leaving its predecessor in the dust. Globally, it’s the sixth-highest film in the franchise and about $40 million away from surpassing its predecessor to enter the top five. It’s also still eyeing the coveted $1 billion mark and should it reach those heights, Marvel’s top five films will all have reached $1 billion, with more likely to do so in the future.

Step aside, blockbusters, because the next film in the weekend’s top five is the little YA romance film, Everything, Everything. It performed even better than expected with an intake just under $12 million. With a $10 million budget, the film is already doing well for itself and is a decent win for Warner Bros. The film is based on the popular novel of the same name by Nicola Yoon and has been generating buzz for the last couple of months, which clearly paid off as audiences came out to see the film and make good on their excitement. A similar film, last year’s Me Before You, opened with $18 million and went on to make $56.2 million. It will be interesting to see how Everything, Everything does going forward.

Warner Bros. Pictures

The final two films were able to shut out the other new film of the weekend, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, but just barely. Snatched came in just under $8 million while Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, surprisingly remained in the top five with a second-weekend intake of $7.1 million. The film, which dropped over 53 percent, hasn’t even broached $100 million worldwide yet, which is especially alarming due to its $175 million budget. Snatched, meanwhile, the Amy Schumer-Goldie Hawn comedy has now crossed $30 million.

The remainder of the top ten consisted of the aforementioned Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Boss Baby, Beauty and the Beast, and more, the latter of which is now the tenth-highest film of all time.

(Source: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed.)

Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor