Alien: Covenant finally debuted in Japan and the box office numbers for its opening weekend are officially in. Unfortunately Covenant did not pull ahead with a very strong take, earning itself only $2.6 million. Compared to Ridley Scott's previous Alien prequel, Prometheus earned $3.8 million when it debuted in Japan.
It's no surprise that Covenant struggled at the box office, both domestically and internationally. The good news however is that Covenant Blu-ray and DvD sales are staying strong - most likely because fans were eager to check out the film's deleted and extended scenes.
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The Alien franchise is taking a dramatic turn at 20th Century Studios, now owned by Disney. Currently there are two major Alien projects in development - a new Alien TV series by Noah Hawley and a new, stand-alone Alien movie being directed by Fede Alvarez. Both of which will be taking the franchise in a new direction - moving away from the Alien prequel direction Ridley Scott set out to pursue back in 2012.
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Covenant may not have done too well domestically but internationally it did pretty well or am I missing something? Either way, glad Blu-ray sales are strong and that it wasn't a total flop at the box office. I hope FOX doesn't cave in to the naysayers and moves forward with Ridley's plans because he has a great thing on his hands and he obviously isn't finished. Love the mythology building and sophisticated storytelling.
"It's no surprise that Covenant struggled at the box office, both domestically and internationally"
Exactly, no surprise. Because it doesn't even feel like an Alien movie. I am going to say it again: just make a spinoff with David and company for that minority who enjoys that storyline and bring back what this franchise is all about. And I don't mean bug hunt, I mean visceral, gripping survival stories that are smart and suspenseful.
bring back what this franchise is all about. And I don't mean bug hunt, I mean visceral, gripping survival stories that are smart and suspenseful.
definitely have to agree there! The Dead Space franchise was inspired by what made Alien so great, now perhaps the Alien franchise should return the favour and take notes from makes Dead Space so great lol. Epic grand scale visuals, suspense, intelligent and logical decision-making, constant threat to survival, visceral and gripping
'It's also important to remember that Japan's preferred measurement for box office ranking is theater attendance. This is because movie tickets are often sold depending on the genre, what country it's from, what studio made it, what gender is buying the ticket and what sort of discount day it is. (There are many.)
Alien: Covenant opened on a Holiday weekend and was practically the only major release, but it looks like it's only #1 via more expensive tickets. Attendance-wise it looks like it may have opened as low as #3. I don't know yet, I'm still waiting for more official numbers from Kogyotsushin to be translated.
Attendance is important because it gives us an indicator of how well it will do in the coming weeks. Strong legs is more important to the Japanese box office than opening weekends, but comparing Saturday's number to Sunday's might give an indication of its future.
If it made $2.6M then it likely opened to an estimated audience of 195,000 for the weekend. For comparison that number is a slightly better opening than Wonder Woman (182,092), Ghost in the Shell (171,203), Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (163,143) and Logan (113,600).
Seriously, it's not an "Alien" movie? What's an "Alien" movie? Please, be specific: That would be like, "It's not ALIEN" or "It's not ALIENS", or "It's not A3", or "It's not A:R", or, let's go for it, "It's not AVP"?
I have to say I don't know what it was felt "domestically or internationally", but I liked PROMETHEUS very much, as I liked COVENANT, ALIEN (the one and only, if it is about an "Alien movie"), and A3, for its "Alien" atmosphere. I don't think ALIENS was an Alien movie at all, it was just Cameron exterminating (Yup, I meant it) something once perfect!
ScorpioStar I know what I did not want, and that is David taking over the movie. I also did not appreciate the dumb and disposable characters and all the cgi. And the unscary, easy to kill xenomorph. Next to Covenant, Prometheus is a total masterpiece.
ScorpioStar I like to be surprised, entertained, have my imagination stimulated. I would have appreciated a follow up to Prometheus, more about Elizabeth Shaw and her quest for answers, body horror, metaphysical dread. Visually, I would have liked more Giger and less victorian drawings, more sophistication in the Alien design, more weirdness. I would have appreciated it a movie that expands the known universe, not one that made it smaller like Covenant.
The World of KJ has finally translated the weekend actuals from Kogyotsushin. While the actuals show it made more money, I was sadly way, way off in terms of attendance.
Alien: Covenant opened to #2 with $3.1M. It fell to Dunkirk, which is in its second weekend. Alien: Covenant had an attendance of 138,297 across 694 screens. That places it under Wonder Woman, Ghost in a Shell and Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but above Logan's opening.
Alien: Covenant is expected to finish its Japanese run with about $10M. That would estimate and attendance around 440,000. (Give or take, depending on the discount days.) To put that in perspective, anything lower than an attendance of 2-2.5 million is usually considered a flop.
@Joylitt +1 about focusing on some real Alien drama equal or surpassing the original. @Lawrence of Arabia, the movie has barely broke even when you include marketing costs. For domestic grosses, the studio gets half; for international grosses, the studio gets 1/3. If you look at the numbers and look at the 97 million initial budget, the studio has nearly received 90 million for its movie release. Nevertheless, it will garner a product with Blu-ray sales, streaming and on-demand. But I doubt 20th Century Fox wants to risk that amount on another sequel.
Yep it is too much about artificial intelligence which is a disappointment. I don't care if it is supposed to be about that or not, I am just commenting on what I see.
They should focus on the human characters and less on AI. Alien has never been about AI but they have been a part of it. It should never be about that.
Survival horror with good human characters is what it should be about.
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