'Alita: Battle Angel' Estimates Predict Impressive Opening Week Box Office

Alita: Battle Angel may have gotten off to a rough start with critics, and with early predictions making it out to be a box office bomb, but current estimates now predict an impressive box office performance over the long President's Day weekend.

Box Office Mojo is reporting a $43 million five-day opening weekend for the film, and coupled with its $94 million estimated earnings worldwide brings it to a promising $137 million opening should it all shake out.

Having a reported budget of between $150 and $200 million, Alita: Battle Angel still has a ways to go in order to carve out an even more impressive final gross. But it's an uphill battle. Alita: Battle Angel opened in 86 foreign markets, and reportedly earned $56.2 million over the weekend. This is all before the film makes its official debut in China and Japan on February 22, which could provide another boost to the box office totals.

Alita: Battle Angel officially opened on February 14 in the United States, and took the top spot in the box office that Thursday night with $8.7 million. Later reports had the film winning the box office weekend overall, and the four day total had it still standing on top with $41 million. This has definitely been good news for anime fans as they have been defending the film against the harsh critiques it had received early on.

Alita: Battle Angel has been a breath of fresh air from fans of anime adaptations as they believe it's a live-action adaptation that fully captures the spirit of the original series. It does this so well, in fact, that original series creator Yukito Kishiro has gone on record stating that he's seen the new film five times (at the time of writing) and claims it is the "greatest movie in the world."

Directed by Robert Rodriguez, produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau, stars Rosa Salazar (as the titular Alita), Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, and Jackie Earle Haley. ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis recently reviewed the film, and here's an excerpt of his thoughts:

"All things considered, the movie is an immersive escape to another world. Attempts at emotion and human connections are supplemented by amazing visual and practical effects, along with well-crafted action sequences. It's not going to be the next Avatar despite being an equally massive idea, but Alita builds its own world for a second adventure which could get audiences more invested." You can read the full review of Alita: Battle Angel here.

Battle Angel Alita (known as GUNNM in Japan) was originally created by Yukito Kishiro for Shueisha's Weekly Business Jump in 1990. The series is set in a post-apocalyptic future and follows Alita, a cyborg who is found in a garbage heap by a doctor and rebuilt. Completely devoid of her memory, all she has to cling to is a legendary cyborg martial art known as Panzer Kunst. With this knowledge, Alita decides to become a bounty hunter. The series has since been licensed for an English language release by Viz Media, and collected into nine volumes.

via Box Office Mojo