It’s been an interesting summer at the box office with Deadpool & Wolverine crossing $1 billion and breaking records while Borderlands had an abysmal opening last weekend. This weekend saw the release of Alien: Romulus, the newest installment to the sci-fi franchise that began back in 1979. Currently, the movie is up on Rotten Tomatoes with an 81% critics score and 86% audience score. Alien: Romulus had a strong preview night, and now it’s headed towards an impressive $100 million worldwide opening.
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According to Deadline, Alien: Romulus‘ domestic opening for the weekend is expected to cap off between $40 million and $42 million. Meanwhile, the movie’s weekend tally internationally is looking like $60 million, bringing its worldwide total to about $100 million in its opening weekend. The movie is doing especially well in China where it’s expected to earn $23 million this weekend. The 20th Century Studios film is the latest huge hit for Disney, which had two movies – Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine – hit $1 billion fairly quickly.
What Is Alien: Romulus About?
Alien: Romulus is being billed as more of a spinoff rather than a direct continuation of the Alien franchise and will see a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. Álvarez has previously opened up about how a deleted scene from James Cameron’s Aliens featuring young colonists inspired Romulus’ story.
“My first instinct, just to try something different that hasn’t been seen before, was to approach it form the angle of characters who are not professionals or scientists; they’re not even adults,” he said. “I liked this concept of putting people in the front seat of the story who are closer to what the audience is — not that the audience is young, more that the audience is completely virgin to the realities of space. When the characters are professionals, they know more than you do. But when they’re still in their early 20s, they don’t know how to operate the f-cking airlock.”
He continued, “All their parents probably worked on the same ship when they were kids, and that’s how they got to know each other … There’s a lot of history between them because they’re the only family they have. They truly act more like surrogate siblings; some of them even lived under the same roof. A lot of the big themes of the movie are about siblinghood and what does that mean? The Romulus of it all, and the bigger plot with Weyland-Yutani, is actually connected to that as well.”
Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), David Jonsson (Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (The Last of Us), Spike Fearn (Aftersun), Aileen Wu. Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) directs from a screenplay he wrote with frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues (Don’t Breathe 2) based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett.
Alien: Romulus is now playing in theaters.
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