Romulus Killed It At The Box Office

It was another big weekend at the box office, particularly for Disney as for the fourth weekend in a row, the Mouse House had the number one movie in the world. After three weeks atop the charts, “Deadpool & Wolverine” finally had to surrender the crown. The Marvel blockbuster recently passed “Joker” to become the biggest R-rated movie in history, so it’s been an impressive run at the top. Now though, it’s time for “Alien: Romulus” to have its day in the sun.

Directed by Fede Alvarez, the latest entry in the “Alien” franchise came in at number one at the box office with a $108 million global debut. “Romulus” pulled in an estimated $41.5 million domestically to go with a very solid $66.7 million internationally. That means for the last four weekends in a row, the number one movie in theaters has been an R-rated affair released by Disney. That would have been unthinkable even a few years ago, but, thanks to the merger with Fox back in 2019, it’s a new world we’re living in. 20th Century Studios has changed the game for the famously family-friendly studio.

So, what went right with this one? How did Disney bring back the beloved sci-fi/horror series so successfully? We’re going to go over some of the biggest reasons that “Alien: Romulus” killed it at the box office over the weekend. Let’s get into it.

Put simply, a movie can’t have a chance at the box office if it never makes it to theaters. To that end, Disney’s decision to give “Alien: Romulus” a theatrical release rather than release it directly to Hulu is the biggest reason that this movie succeeded over the weekend. It may also be painfully obvious but that doesn’t make it any less true. By not dumping this movie directly to streaming, the studio wound up with a major success that will, in the end, undoubtedly make them a great deal more money. The film carries an $80 million budget. For a movie that made as much as this one did on its opening weekend, that looks very reasonable. For a direct-to-streaming release, that math would have been far more fuzzy. 

Disney’s 20th Century Studios previously released the much-praised “Predator” prequel movie “Prey” directly to Hulu in 2022. While we can never be certain, there is a firm belief held by many in the industry that director Dan Trachtenberg’s film would have done quite well for itself in theaters and that the streaming release was a big mistake. Originally, Disney intended to do something similar with “Romulus.” Fortunately, they had a change of heart and that proved to be the right decision.

For a franchise that has struggled a bit in terms of audience reception in recent years, it certainly didn’t hurt that general audiences largely seemed to enjoy “Alien: Romulus.” The film currently holds a solid 82% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, to go with an 86% audience score. Critics and audiences generally seemed to be aligned here. Many of the reactions to “Romulus” have called it a “greatest hits” collection for the franchise, but that doesn’t seem to be a bad thing for many moviegoers. To that end, the only films from the series that currently rank higher on Rotten Tomatoes are the original “Alien” and James Cameron’s “Aliens.”

The evidence suggests that the general consensus is that Alvarez, whose previous films include the likes of 2013’s “Evil Dead” remake and “Don’t Breathe,” crafted more of an effective crowd-pleaser than Ridley Scott did with his prequels. To that end, “Romulus” earned a B+ CinemaScore, which is better than “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant,” both of which earned a flat B. That plus does make a difference.

Timing is often everything when it comes to the box office and “Romulus” timed itself perfectly. These things can be difficult to predict but “Deadpool & Wolverine” had begun to lose just a little bit of steam after three weeks. While it is also an R-rated movie, it’s very much aimed at a different crowd. We also have “This Ends With Us” as the other big release right now, which is also aimed squarely at a very different demographic. Lionsgate’s “Borderlands” absolutely bombed in its debut. So while that might have represented a bit of competition, the video game adaptation essentially didn’t matter at all, in the end.

Beyond that, Disney stumbled into a bit of a late summer record here. Every other movie that has opened bigger than “Alien: Romulus” in August has done so in the first half of the month, with films like David Ayer’s “Suicide Squad” ($133.6 million) and James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” ($94.3 million) serving as the prime examples. “Romulus” now holds the biggest opening for a movie opening in the back half of August. Does this suggest that studios have historically not maximized the late summer window? Perhaps. Either way, Disney made very good use of that real estate this time around.

Marketing shouldn’t be discounted when breaking down a movie’s financial success. In this case, we’re looking at the second-best opening weekend for an “Alien” movie ever, behind only “Prometheus” ($51 million) in 2012, not adjusting for inflation. It was also quite a bit better than 2017’s “Alien: Covenant” ($31.6 million), which attempted to course correct the prequel series unsuccessfully. A big part of that had to do with the fact that Disney marketed the film as a return-to-form for the franchise. That proved to be effective at generating interest from a wide range of moviegoers beyond the franchise’s hardcore loyalists.

Without getting into spoilers, “Romulus” certainly doesn’t ignore Ridley Scott’s prequel films. Be that as it may, they weren’t at all used in the marketing. Instead, the studio focused on the scary vibe, leaning on the horror more than the action. Beyond the trailers, Alvarez and Disney also hyped up the film’s reliance on practical creature effects. That helps tie it back to the original “Alien” and “Aliens,” which remain beloved to this day. The pitch of presenting “Romulus” as a scary, visually impressive film that didn’t require a lot of homework was an effective one.

Horror has been arguably the most reliable genre at the box office in the pandemic era. That was especially true in 2022 and 2023, with movies like “Smile,” “M3GAN,” “The Black Phone,” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” among others, doing a lot of heavy-lifting. While the first half of 2024 saw theaters struggling mightily, things have turned around pretty impressively from July onward. Even though things were rough even for horror earlier this year, “Alien: Romulus” once again helps cement horror as a genre that audiences are very loyal to.

“A Quiet Place: Day One” was the first true breakout horror hit of the year, with “Night Swim” ($54.6 million) and “The First Omen” ($53.8 million) leading the pack before that. Globally, “Romulus” doubled those totals in a single weekend. There is much to be said about why some of the horror movies from the first half of 2024 failed to deliver the goods but that’s a conversation for another time. We’ve since had movies like “Longlegs” go on to make more than $100 million worldwide. “Romulus” captured the attention of the horror-lovers of the world and made use of that loyalty to the genre. It proved once again that, under the right circumstances, horror is money in the bank.