Alien: Covenant sequel in trouble?

Covenant's second weekend drop is 70% and not 80%.

As a comparison, Prometheus had a 60% second weekend drop.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/showdowns/chart/?id=covprom.htm

 

Relevant info (04 06):

Domestic: $67,2 million so far (estimate)

Foreign: $106,6 million so far

Worldwide $173,8 million so far (estimate)

The movie opens in China on 16 06 2017, in Japan in September.

Alien Film

Opening Weekend, Adjusted

Total Worldwide Gross

Alien: Covenant

$36 million

$173,8 million

Prometheus

$54 million

$403 million

Alien Resurrection

$25 million

$161 million

Alien 3

$34 million

N/A

Aliens

$22 million

$118 million

Alien

$12 million

$103 million

 

To sum it up, we can jump to a reliable conclusion in September.

Thanks for the added info, Ati! I've also fixed the typo to 70%.

I think they'll let Scott do this next one, and if it bombs then call it quits, but I think Scott will knock it out of the park.

Can we as a community organise some type of social media campaign to try and help boost interest in the film? 

Even if everyone on here shares articles from this site for a week or two the organic reach would be staggering. There are a lot of members here from all over the world. Im happy to help coordinate. 

Surely even those who didn't enjoy A:C as much would still like to see more films made, and not let the franchise die?  

You're welcome, Chris!

I hope it will bring plus 30 million domestic, plus 50 million from China and Japan, plus 20-40 million from other countries.

260-280 would be OK, I think...

I agree.

Lack of foresight by FOX and big mistake, at least Scott is a very confident as director, all the missing holes on Prometheus is trickier with Alien Covenant now. Bad screenwriters choosen this time and David/Walter no fit definitely on the history. A lot of leakage material from previous teasers. Good marketing but high budget for a very unambitious script for such big movie and expectation. 

As for the line 'Dwayne Johnson comedy Baywatch managed to dethrone Ridley Scott's Prometheus sequel', we should look at its domestic opening weekend box office: 18,5 million.

Again: only 18,5 million! And it refers to a 4-day-weekend!

   

Realistically ALIEN: Covenant is doing extremely well considering what it's competing against.

jfkwcb4464 Ridley Scott never wrote a script. And I don't think he would be crazy about following up on Newt's exploits. At this point, I think he would happily erase the legacy of Aliens if he could.

Alot of you have very optimistic wishful thinking and I hoping it will cross the 200 million worldwide mark.  At this point, it seems dire.

The movie made only 10 million dollars over the four-day Memorial Day weekend in the United States and Canada.  That is pathetic for North America in its second week in release for a supposed high-caliber film like Covenant.  Next week is Wonder Woman and it sits currently at 97% rotten tomatoes.  

Read this Forbes review that came out 10 hours ago.  Mendleson knows the box office.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2017/05/30/box-office-alien-covenant-suffers-record-71-memorial-day-weekend-drop/#3fd41fa66a32

I think A:C will do big business in China and Japan.  I wouldn't be surprised to see it take in around 300M plus by the time it's all over.

colonialsoldier It is not just that. Suppose it barely makes 250, how many of the people who actually watched the movie are going to be interested on the sequel?

This review clearly expresses why Covenant has not done well:

"The most obvious of Ridley Scott’s motivations for continually making these movies seems to be that the money he gets for them spends well enough. But, the only slightly less obvious explanation is that the Blade Runner director wants to make a movie about androids and the meaning of life but the studios won’t let him unless he punctuates the dialogue with a certain xenomorph monster that the kids will pay to see."

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/448092/alien-covenant-review-androids

@iraptus - totally agree with you

From what has happened due to the release of the new pirates movie, i'm not surprised that it didn't go well. Just bad luck from the looks of its release.

Hi = D
Hello, everyone from foreigners around the world.
I am sorry for the bad english that depends on machine translation.
I've been enjoying fun conversations, discussions and considerations filled with love for all of you aliens.

Japanese fans were really looking forward to the foreign agreement really in Japan.
I was waiting.

However ... sorry, the publicity on September 15 was too late.
It was fun until May.
I was thrilled to be together with new information and video as well as fans around the world!

In the middle of May, there will be no official trailers and so forth coming out
I will naturally know the contents of a movie by watching information and videos from overseas.
There are many fans who are disappointed or disappointed with knowing the contents of the movie first, being interested in watching movies with videos captured stealing without being tolerable ... ...
Since DVDs and Blu-ray are also released overseas before the release date, fans who go directly to the movie theater may be few.

I also saw the movie shot, but I intend to buy genuine Blu-ray which is sold overseas.

And it is not a movie that contains even the sound of camera shake, nose and fart
A black shadow like a huge engineer is not satisfied with the movie that goes across the screen to go to the bathroom
It is not a low-quality movie that crosses the front of the screen again with popcorn with one hand
I want to enjoy a powerful large screen, excellent sound in a movie theater.

However, I can not expect box office performance in Japan.
Too much too late.

As for the voice of the fans, anger to Japanese "FOX Japan" is conspicuous.
In Japan's original official trailer, there are unnecessary adaptations
"escaped from the destroyed earth, ... people"
"We survived the human race ... the first first step of the plan for resettling humanity, that is c.o.v.e.n.a.n.t."
... and Japanese narration are included.
You can not forgive such a lie on your own with the official trailer.
I feel like being stupid.
It is disappointing.

That translation, in the last message, has been done by a machine learning algorithm. Makes me wonder, if you apply a reverse transformation, a convolution, will you get back the original message or you will get another cache poisoning when you try parse the ciphertext.

I NEVER see a movie twice in the theater.  The only 2 times I did that was with 'The Matrix' (only because a theater was closing and showing it for $1!) and 'Prometheus'.  As big of a fan of this franchise as I am, I will not be seeing 'Alien: Covenant' in the theater twice, so I'm not going above and beyond to help.  Imagine those who aren't as big of a fan... they're not going at all because I think they did not like the direction of 'Prometheus' or were disappointed in its shortcomings or because they are hearing that 'Alien: Covenant' is not worth seeing.  I think the Rotten Tomatoes audience reaction is worth noting, not the critics.  At 61% "liked it" compared to 68% "liked it" for 'Prometheus', and for ALL of the faults of 'Prometheus' (which were many, and I still thoroughly enjoyed it), we can see pretty plainly.  'Alien: Covenant' is not liked nearly as much by the regular movie-going public.  I hope we can get at least one more movie in so it can all be tied together.  Maybe they'll even somehow redeem both 'Prometheus' and 'Alien: Covenant', but they need some fairly creative writers.

Great information everyone!  If I remember correctly, Prometheus had a budget of 250 Million.  Covenant had a budget of 1-150 Million?  Fox should be making a profit soon enough-

The movie will profit eventually. I truly dislike these reports calling it a flop. That's really unfair and disingenuous of people to report that shit. The fucking movie hasn't even opened in China yet for Christ's sake? Now, with that said I think Sir Ridley has really pleased ALIEN fans this time around. However, those of us who really enjoyed PROMETHEUS like myself are really disappointed we didn't get more of that story told. It's like he's trying to please one camp or the other with these movies instead of concentrating on the story as a whole. Maybe it needs to be longer than two hours? An epic tale such as this truly deserves it! I loved it but it should've had at least a three hour running time. I guess I'm trying to say that he's catering to the audience rather than the story and it's backfiring. He's also moved further away from Giger's biomechanical wishes for the franchise too. That's not to say that may be coming up in the next movie but it's a clear case of "less is less" versus "less is more". We've also got some really popular franchises coming out just a week after Covenant's premier such as Disney's Pirate's of the Caribbean and the unwatchable ("IMO") Baywatch and the real croaker of the bunch still...GOTG2 (which I love as well). These are huge kiddy friendly and/or check your brain at the door flicks which I'm sad to say is the majority of John Q Public (including myself, lol!). All these variables factor against "Covenant" in one way or another, but it will make a profit eventually. This is just my opinion now but I'm sure that perhaps a few of you would agree...

Prometheus made $403 Million.

I am still trying to understand why we went away from that story?  It is obvious it is not about money, because FOX is going to take a bath on this one.  I am bummed!

@Cerulean Blue, there is a recent interview with Ridley Scott at Yahoo! Movies where he indicates the reason why the Xenomorph was now front and center and why the change in direction from 'Prometheus'...

“What changed was the reaction to ‘Prometheus’, which was a pretty good ground zero reaction.  It went straight up there, and we discovered from it that [the fans] were really frustrated. They wanted to see more of the original [monster] and I thought he was definitely cooked, with an orange in his mouth. So I thought: ‘Wow, OK, I’m wrong’.  The fans, in a funny kind of way – they’re not the final word – but they are the reflection of your doubts about something, and then you realise ‘I was wrong’ or ‘I was right’. I think that’s where it comes in. I think you’re not sensible if you don’t actually take [the fans’ reaction] into account.”

So, like many things in this world, the ones who complain, no matter how small a minority they might be, typically are the loudest, thus altering the perception for those who are outside of that world, that the majority must feel the same way when in fact they do not.

@Membrane - I am in total agreement with you.  The brats always get what they want, so the parent can end the bickering!

The sequel will be made...

@Membrane, I was completely taken aback when I first noticed that what was once called "Prometheus 2: Paradise Lost", had just been turned into "Alien: Covenant". And I followed Sir Ridley's interviews after that with increasingly concern for everything showed he had to reconsider his original approach to satisfy the bug fans.

 

In the end, I think he found a nice way to please everybody to a certain extent. But haters will be haters, and if there's a sequel - or prequel, as he mentioned "Awakening" - I hope he sticks to his guns.

ScorpioStar I have a better idea. Ridley Scott should have his sequel to Covenant funded by Kickstart and let a proper Alien film go forward with another director. Everybdy happy.

@Cerulean Blue, as a parent of 2 young children, I understand the pull to just appease the whining kid and give in, but it is truly for the better if you stand your ground.  The end result is usually a better child as they grow up and an easier time for the parent.  This can't be applied to everything, but many things.  In other words, the best path is not always the easiest. :-)

Sir Ridley did not please me with this version of Alien.  But good news, Covenant passed 60 million domestic today lol.

obviously the xenomorph fans screams the loudest and they got what they wanted, but the figures speak for a thinner audience, and everyone who liked prometheus was so eager to this sequel, and got nothing in return for a 5 year wait- the way prometheus ended was so exiting- and the way AC ends is just stupid, who cares what happens after this. If fox makes another bughunt movie, i think they put the final nail in the coffin for the franchise.

Joylitt , I'm in your boat in a general sense too. I'm not too hyped about blomkamp A5 but this film just needs SERIOUS oversight if it gets a sequel. I fear Ridley is surrounded by yes men and fans like myself and the general public don't appreciate being force fed this pretentious nonsense where religious characters are zealots or fools or its another ROBOT show! I can't stand the super fast jumpy editing and the three acts being merged into a final slush with more illogical actions by the dumbest humans to enter galactic orbit. As of this weekend as the Japanese fellow mentioned the cam version is available free on the interwebs which does absolutely prevent folks from buying tickets. I have been here for a year eating every crumb for Prometheus 2 so as a fan it sucks to be labeled a hater but it is what it is. I would not recommend this film to my sister's family or my best friend who is also a longtime fanatic. I just don't trust Ridley even if he felt forced to comply with the "bug" fans and or Fox. The critic reviews/ youtube videos have spoken and the American audience is not buying into all this esoteric symbolism creationism silly garbage. Half the fan base is pissed about David creating the xenomorphs so what will ridley canabalise in the sequel. He's not hopping off that high horse for anybody and may likely do things just for spite.

Alien Covenant is bombing a bit... thats for sure, but the reason for this is quite simple.... its a ALIEN Movie and like it or not the Alien Franchise is not a Big Hit apart from the Franchise Fanbase... i am not saying its bad, its just that it does not have the impact Star Wars does...

The Problem stems from the Beast being cooked... so to speak, as right after Alien 3 the Franchise had come to its climax, Ripley was dead... The END!

The Franchise enjoyed a lot of coverage as far as Games and Comics etc, but the Big Time it had ran its course and given a send off.....  

Until they resurrected it with Resurrection, which was prior to the expanded universe of what Prometheus opened up, and so they explored the route that LV-426 must have been destroyed and Ridley also gone.... and so the only way to bring the Alien Back was  Clone Ripley  (in hindsight the Prequel route/Space Jockey Race was another avenue).

Alien Resurrection Sadly did not do too well, it just lacked that feel the other Alien movies had, it felt a bit odd in the way to bring Ripley Back this way.. and elements of this movie was simply just not a touch on the First 3

This set up a Bad Rap for the continuation... and hence FOX did not continue with a Sequel but instead they explored the AVP Franchise as the AVP Computer Games and Comics was giving Fans their fix of Marines and Xenomorphs..

Sadly Alien vs Predator was not the same kind of Movie the Games/Comics was based off, this was no 22nd century Space Fairing Human Marines Flick.... and so AVP again did not go down to well....

Then we had AVPR.... after AVP did not seem to please many as hoped it never brought back that WOW Factor of the 1986 Aliens, and it again did not do justice to the Games/Comics... FOX had lost confidence and rushed out a Low-Budget Sub Standard AVP2 and this Movie Sucked... it totally damaged the reputation of the Xenomorph and even had some effect on the Predator.

After this, the Xenomorph became a Bug Hunt, reduced to a Space Monster Zombie kind of threat... to a degree.. it lost its charm...   Then we had a few Disappointing AVP Games Released.  That was not as good as the 2001-2002 Series

At this point the Xenomorph was not that Iconic Beast that it was Originally not in the eyes of the General Public.  And to a degree Casual Sci-Fi Fans...

PROMETHEUS... was a attempt to get back on track as no one ever explored the Origins of the Xenomorph or who the Space Jockey was and after first having a movie that would cover the Xenomorph a bit... and the Space Jockey,  they decided to tone down the Xenomorph Connections feeling that giving clues to the Space Jockey/Engineers played a role in its creation without having to actually show any Xenomorphs was the way to go..

This Split the Fans, the movie had its flaws... and maybe it was in a part a attempt to bring in the Casual Sci-Fi and General Public to see a interesting Sci-Fi flick that maybe not everyone would have known was a ALIEN movie.. maybe because they felt the ALIEN had a Bad Rap... and this movie could pull in some Casual Fans to then find out its actually connected to Alien but its trying to expand and explore the Franchise in more depth...

Again this never worked out as planned, some Casual Fans found it confusing, and Franchise Fans was Split...

So we come to.... ALIEN COVENANT...

Ridley Scott and FOX felt maybe leaving the Xenomorph out was a mistake, and so they then changed the plans they had for a Sequel to Prometheus to loosely cover where this movie was going but to bring it in to showcase Xenomorphs and different versions too... they even threw in a Curve-Ball that Split Fans.... they kind of brushed away the Engineers/Shaw which disappointed some Prometheus Fans...

It was heavily Pushed as a ALIEN Movie, especially with TV Spots and Posters.. it was like LOOK ITS A ALIEN MOVIE!

Sadly it did not give Aliens Fans enough Action, touched upon Prometheus a bit to much for their liking, the whole ITS ABOUT DAVID... did not settle too well...

The Movie was also branded about as a Horror Flick, bringing it back to the Original Alien... The Trailers Teased as Such.... RS even said this will Scare the S&%" out of you..... Sadly it did not do this enough, the Magic of Alien was attempted but the Alien was shown too much and not kept to the Shadows... CGI did not look as Good as the up close Practical effects of Old.  The Whole Xenomorph Scenes seemed Rushed, and nothing Original and just a attempt to Re-hash... Alien vs Dallas and Alien 3 vs Prisoners (smaller scale) feel with the lets blow it out of the Airlock Ending of Alien and Aliens.

so the movie just did not quite deliver what the Franchise Fans wanted, it had too small a budget and too much to try and cover in a limited time-frame too.

This Effected the Re-watch Value for the Franchise Fans for various reasons, and the Negative reviews that came and word of mouth simply did not do well to Pull in the Casual Fan-base..

So as with Prometheus the higher first week  was a majority of Franchise Fans who went to see the movie opening week, and then it seems not as many had 2nd/3rd views as Prometheus had.

Negative reviews and disappointment from Franchise Fans passed about Word of Mouth and this has effected Alien Covenant quite a bit..

Another point is these kinds of reaction have had a effect, combined with what the Trailers Showed... i had spoken to some people who had not seen it yet and their comments was.. "well i have been told the Trailers show all the movie apart from Prometheus things and showing its all about Mad Scientist David the Robot who creates the Alien"

So they therefore dont see the need to see the movie....

 

 

 

 

Repeat the Last Part for those who dont want to read the full post...

And that Ultimately its the Franchise Fans who went opening Week, and a higher % was disappointed and did not go for as many multiple viewings thats affected the reasons for the lower results the following weeks...

Here is the last part of my previous post.

So the movie just did not quite deliver what the Franchise Fans wanted, it had too small a budget and too much to try and cover in a limited time-frame too.

This Effected the Re-watch Value for the Franchise Fans for various reasons, and the Negative reviews that came and word of mouth simply did not do well to Pull in the Casual Fan-base..

So as with Prometheus the higher first week  was a majority of Franchise Fans who went to see the movie opening week, and then it seems not as many had 2nd/3rd views as Prometheus had.

Negative reviews and disappointment from Franchise Fans passed about Word of Mouth and this has effected Alien Covenant quite a bit..

Another point is these kinds of reaction have had a effect, combined with what the Trailers Showed... i had spoken to some people who had not seen it yet and their comments was.. "well i have been told the Trailers show all the movie apart from Prometheus things and showing its all about Mad Scientist David the Robot who creates the Alien"

So they therefore dont see the need to see the movie....

I do have GRAVE Concerns for the Franchise now...

I hope we dont get another AVPR here.... by that FOX had kind of set up a sequel to AVP, and as this was a disappointment they simply rushed out a Half-Assed job on a way smaller Budget.

Alien Covenants Budget that was about $100M is not enough, i do worry now we will see a AVPR situation where FOX will make a sequel but they will reduce the Budget even further...  and if  RS is only given $70-80M i dont think they can pull off a Good Movie.... and the franchise will be kind of DEAD!

My 2nd Concern is how FOX and RS seemed to have a change of Plan due to Blomkamps Alien 5, and so brought in the Xenomorph.... having see this not really make the movie a HIT... i do now feel and worry they will BRING BACK RIPLEY

Ripley + Alien = $$$$$$

God Help us if they Kill David off, Daniels off, and have TWO Xenomorphs running around and we see a 12 year old Ripley Survive.... but then have counciling to make her Forget about those Horrors....

While this tale is told by a older Ripley re-counting some Memories that have surfaced 20 years after the events of Aliens... 

Thus giving us a Alien Awakening, being a Dream of Ripley from a Traumatic Event on the Colony Ship the Covenant when she was a little Girl....

Then Que.... set up for a Alien 5, well New Alien 3....

And i am being Serious here... i worry this is the route they could now be Forced to take.

Alien is going into a direction that is far more mundane, less biomechanical and a story concerning human issues like who are our creators.

In a word:  BORING!!!!  So boring... Oh dear, dear me so boring.

We need the unending weirdness that is HR Giger's universe!  

BRING IT BACK!!!

THAT was the draw!  And, there is no need to spell everything out.  David Lynch movies can be fascinating and he leaves you to solve the weirdness yourself.  THIS is what makes movies fascinating.  

I have divorced myself from the prequels and sequels.  They are commercial pap, movies that have completely gotten off track from the raw and frightening biomechanical weirdness that is Giger.  Alien will always be a stand-alone film with no prequels or sequels.  Unless Fox and Ridley take the plunge into high strangeness.  And I really don't see that happening.  Ever.

Thank you and goodnight.

 

Hi, greetings from Poland. I watch the movie 3 times and after first time I really hate the movie, then I start to think about it, go second time to the cinema and I become a real fan of AC. Really I love this movie as much I love prometheus and I hope there will be sequel. 

It's quite worrying that it made so little, and I hope it can pull in a bit more the coming weeks. I do wonder if Ridley Scott had a multiple picture deal in place with Fox or not, since they were working on the script for the follow-up. Writing a script costs money, and unless it came out of the budget for Covenant or Scott's own pocket, it seems that some deal is in place. That doesn't necessarily mean Fox has guaranteed the sequel to Scott, but there is a small chance they are still doing it.

it s better that they to prepare coffin for franchise

I really don't know and don't understand why you people hate AC so much.. It's made by 81 old man with passion who gave us original Alien (79) and we shoud be grateful for a posibility to dig deeper in to alien universe. I think that the sequel for Alien - Aliens was a really bad way for franchise and it's was a stupid slasher for teens who like shooting to xenomorphs, without nothing more to think, and any questions left to consider.  

I'am reading posts from this site since 2011, before Prometheus hit the cinemas. Most of people from here was thinking about many aspects of the future movies , have many ideas, thoughts and now it's only pure hate, what makes me sad. I understand that a lot of people will not like the movie, but still you can like the music, effects, camera job, actors, pictures, practical effects, anything, not just saying "I hate it, it's stupid" etc., because even if you hate AC, we (the fans of Prometheus and/or AC) deserve to know why!

"..why do you hate us...?!"