The box office for Alien: Romulus has reached a significant milestone. The ninth installment in the Alien franchise, the movie is set between the events of Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens, following a group of space colonists who explore an abandoned space station with a dark secret hidden. Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Isabela Merced, and Spike Fearn are part of the main cast, with Don’t Breathe‘s Fede Álvarez directing. Following its release, Alien: Romulus‘ box office has been performing exceptionally well, even opening with the franchise’s second-best domestic debut weekend with $42 million, just behind Prometheus.
According to Collider, Alien: Romulus has now crossed $74.3 million domestically in 11 days of its theatrical run, beating Alien: Covenant‘s entire $74.2 domestic run. During its initial release, Ridley Scott’s 2017 prequel opened at number one at the box office with a $36.2 million domestic tally. However, the film fell precipitously in its second weekend with a 70.9% drop and a $10.5 million tally.
The Box Office Success For Alien: Romulus Almost Never Happened
The Movie Was Initially Slated To Be Released On Hulu.
While Romulus‘ critical and commercial success is an excellent sign of the future of the Alien franchise, the movie’s theatrical achievements nearly didn’t happen. Similar to 2022’s Prey, when the film was announced, Romulus was initially developed as a straight-to-streaming project for Disney’s Hulu. This was initially part of the plan under former Disney CEO Bob Chapek to aggressively produce content for its streaming services across all The Walt Disney Company divisions.
When Bob Iger returned as Disney CEO, plans for the company’s streaming efforts changed. According to Álvarez while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, the movie’s release strategy was changed to a theater approach shortly before production began. Because of this, Alien: Romulus was filmed knowing it was made for the big screen instead of being altered from streaming to theatrical release after production wrapped.
The Alien franchise will have a streaming-driven installment, with the television series Alien: Earth, which is set to be released on Hulu in 2025.
With an $80 million budget, the film has been a massive commercial success in cinemas, with a $226.8 million global collection. It also gave Disney another profitable blockbuster this summer, after Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Inside Out 2, and Deadpool & Wolverine, with the Pixar-animated sequel still being the year’s highest-grossing movie. Alien: Romulus‘ success also bodes well for the theatrical-exclusive release of Badlands, the latest installment in the Predator franchise, which has recently begun filming, aiming to bring back the popular franchise to cinemas like Álvarez did this summer.
Source: Collider
