Weekend Actuals: 36.2 M ALIEN: COVENANT | 34.7 M GOTG II | 11.7 M EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING

[Mulder]

Just now, Harpospoke said:

 

I probably should elaborate.

 

Do these numbers for Alien suggest it is a franchise capable/worthy of a big budget blockbuster status?   Doesn't it kinda seem like the fanbase is relatively small and trying to shoot for blockbuster numbers is futile?

 

Not so say Xenomorphs should go away in the story, but maybe that budget could be smaller, story could rule, and there would be no need to overspend on CGI to provide popcorn audiences...who aren't going to show up...with a big body count.    It's getting to the point where we already know a group of people will encounter the Xenomorphs and all get killed save for 1 or 2 survivors.      i.e....formula.  

 

 Then the Alien fans like myself rush home and watch the theories about the story on Youtube that they didn't have room to put on the screen because it was a "horror film" with the typical tropes of that genre I've seen a hundred times before.   And if they are going to market it as a horror film, then that means it won't do more than a horror movie typically does.   ...Which isn't going to be blockbuster numbers.   Or maybe the studio thinks putting out Alien movies dressed up as horror films is bigger numbers than regular horror films?    That smaller audience wants their body count and doesn't seem to mind the cliches.    Give them the scary monster stalking victims ad infinitum and they will keep buying tickets.

 

If the real meat of the Alien story bores audiences, why try to trick them into the theater with the slasher film fakery?   Why not make movies for the small audience that is not bored with the Alien story elements?

 

I see they lowered the budget for this one.   I think they should go the Deadpool route, drop the budget down to that level where the filmmakers can have more freedom with the story and get creative where it "looks like a bigger budget on the screen".    

 

"Xenomorphs".....poor letter "X".    Feels like we have to throw that letter a bone at times and give it a word that really belongs to "Z".   No idea why that's not spelled "Zenomorphs".

[filmnerdjamie]

Just now, dudalb said:

Let's not forget the forest for the trees. Alien:Covenet, even if it beats out GOGT 2 for the weekend,is underperforming for a franchise as well known as the Alien Franchise. No doubt that so many  people were disappointed with Prometheus has hurt it, badly. Fox won't lose money on it, but will make at best a modest profit on a big investement.

 

 

For all the talk we all as film dweebs/geeks/nerds do for this franchise, only the first two were big hits in their day... 30+ years ago... and even then they didn't crack $100M domestically ("Holy SHIT!" money back then).

Edited May 21, 2017 by filmnerdjamie

[Biggestgeekever]

18 minutes ago, The Panda of the Caribbean said:

 

It's possible Guardians is underestimated and Alien is overestimated and that would lead to Guardians on top.  But it's not very likely it'll end up swapping them unless there's a half a million error in both directions.

Like Baumer mentioned earlier, Guardians 2 is estimated to have a very generous 25% drop on Sunday already, while Alien: Covenant is estimated to fall 28.3%. It's unlikely Guardians 2 improves much, if at all, from that, so Alien would really have to take a dive today to not be #1.

 

That is possible, though. Unless I'm missing something, Alien already had the third worst Saturday drop of any film this year, behind only Fate of the Furious (opened on Good Friday) and Fifty Shades Darker.

[Chewy]

lil too close for comfort there haha

[filmnerdjamie]

Just now, John Marston said:

 

 

guess it is done in a way that it can be the final movie but also have more installments if they want

 

There is a post-credits tease, yes. Are we allowed to say what it is, even under Spoiler Tags?

[John Marston]

1 minute ago, filmnerdjamie said:

 

There is a post-credits tease, yes. Are we allowed to say what it is, even under Spoiler Tags?

I would like to know

[The Panda]

8 minutes ago, Biggestgeekever said:

Like Baumer mentioned earlier, Guardians 2 is estimated to have a very generous 25% drop on Sunday already, while Alien: Covenant is estimated to fall 28.3%. It's unlikely Guardians 2 improves much, if at all, from that, so Alien would really have to take a dive today to not be #1.

 

That is possible, though. Unless I'm missing something, Alien already had the third worst Saturday drop of any film this year, behind only Fate of the Furious (opened on Good Friday) and Fifty Shades Darker.

 

Yeah, like I said, it isn't overly likely, but it's not impossible.

[Chewy]

Everyone is sick of Depp to the point you could feel an audience-wide eyeroll when he showed up in Fantastic Beasts

[Mockingjay Raphael]

"There were some other very notable performances this session including Universal/Blumhouse’s Get Out which had a get-outta-town good opening in Korea with $7.3M to mark the biggest launch ever for a foreign horror/thriller title, overtaking Uni/Blumhouse’s own Split."

 

HOLY FUCK! This may cross $250M WW!!!!!!!!

[baumer]

3 hours ago, filmnerdjamie said:

 

There is a post-credits tease, yes. Are we allowed to say what it is, even under Spoiler Tags?

 

NO.

[baumer]

3 hours ago, John Marston said:

I would like to know

 

Go to the review thread....or post in in spoiler tags in the Alien Covenant thread, just not in the weekend thread.

[WrathOfHan]

Alien has no post credits scene. Sequel setup=/=post credits scene

 

Edit: this is about POTC. nvm then

Edited May 21, 2017 by WrathOfHan

[Cmasterclay]

I gotta say, I can't watch TV or go anywhere online without seeing the Mummy. Alien and Pirates have been highly saturated, but this is blowing both of them out of the water in terms of sheer volume. Has massive amount of promotion, from Twitter to Snapchat to every commerical break during the playoffs. Easily the best campaign of the summer, at least in terms of putting it in front of eyeballs. I have no idea how this movie is going to do. At first I thought San Andreas numbers, then I saw so many people being negative and not reacting I dropped to like 35, but then tracking had it up in the high 40s and the campaign is everywhere. Cruise is still a draw, but he also puts people off. Also doubtful about quality. It's the only real super unpredictable movie of the summer to me. I can see anywhere from 25 to 60m OW. IDK. All I know is it's the one movie this summer my dad is excited about, so it could play well with older crowds who like monster movies/adventures.  That's how I ended up underestimating Kong. 

Edited May 21, 2017 by Cmasterclay

[Ozymandias]

1 hour ago, The Panda of the Caribbean said:

And if you watch Covenant, it is definitely a Prometheus sequel that also forces a few throwbacks to Alien.

 

I really don't see how people are saying this is a sequel to Prometheus

 

Spoiler

1 of the 2 main characters is killed offscreen Newt/Hicks style.  The ambiguous David is turned into just a simple and really evil character for *reasons* and his motivation for killing Shaw is weak because he clearly had an admiration/affection for her.  The Engineers have only a few seconds of screen time in a flash back before they are all killed off.  Most of the ideas and themes in Prometheus are completely abandoned.

 

What happened with Covenant is that as a sequel to Prometheus its flat out terrible and as an Alien movie it has a very "been there done that" feeling.  So in the end it didn't particularly satisfy anyone. Its just a pretty space monster movie.

[SteveJaros]

4 hours ago, Valonqar said:

Great for GOTG, blah for AC, BatB drop doesn't matter cause it's passing 500M during the Memorial weekend, Snatched collapsed. 

 

Yep, and won't that just be something ... *$500 million* DOM for "Beauty". Stupendous! 

[Valonqar]

8 minutes ago, SteveJaros said:

 

Yep, and won't that just be something ... *$500 million* DOM for "Beauty". Stupendous! 

 

Absolutely. One of the year's big surprises. Not on Get Out level of surprise but surprise in its own right. I daresay Beauty's OS is even more stunning cause those markets aren't big on musicals (unless an animation).

[CJohn]

1 hour ago, MCKillswitch123 said:

 

Dear fucking Christ. I can see how good WB is here. Universal might be even better though, given how successful every single one of their tentpoles is (F8 doing our equivalent of 200M OW is batshit insane... and Secret Life Of Pets' number is mindblowing too).

 

And how can NOS be that bad in the marketing, don't they have pockets of money to sell the movies they have to distribute to tons of people? Cause I don't see Disney movie ads all that often on TV, which is really odd. I actually don't remember seeing a single ad for Guardians 2.

 

Anyway, isn't Blade Runner a WB releas-oh wait, Sony distributes it OS. Well, here's hoping. Gosling coming off La La Land + Arrival director + Harrison Ford... could be a good sell here.

 

NOS is great. Universal, Paramount and WB are internal NOS teams dealing with marketing. Even independent stuff (Mechanic, Circle, NYSM, London Has Fallen) gets big marketing pushes. NOS just distributes Disney movies, tho. The marketing team is from Disney itself, and they stink. The Disney TV marketing consists in awful 5 seconds TV spots for their movies. 

 

Big Pictures is really good considering they don't have the kind of money NOS has. To save money they don't do marketing on the streets, and instead focus on TV. Blade Runner is gonna be fine.

 

June is gonna be ridiculous with WW, The Mummy, TF5 and DM3 coming from the NOS top teams.

[TwoMisfits]

Just now, Valonqar said:

 

Absolutely. One of the year's big surprises. Not on Get Out level of surprise but surprise in its own right. I daresay Beauty's OS is even more stunning cause those markets aren't big on musicals (unless an animation).

 

Umm, how little did you think B&TB would make before the year?  I thought many people were on the $400M+ train, so it's not hugely surprising it went a little higher...

 

Now, Get Out (and Split) or Uni-uber-cheap-horror - those are the stunners of the year so far in a good way...

[Barnack]

4 hours ago, drdungbeetle said:

I honestly don't know why they stuck with Bay this long. 

 

I think you have some idea why they did (also I think Hasbro have a lot to say on that franchise).

 

Inflation adjusted transformer result:

 

1: 836.97m

2: 953.19m

3: 1221.65 m

4: 1140.42 m

 

That an adjusted average for inflation above 1 billion by movie, that a really impressive track record.

 

The exec don't want to be the guy that fired Bay and have him not work ever again for Paramount (and why would he consider removing him with that track record), many of those franchise Power Rangers, GI Joe, didn't come close. Also he is very good at putting is money on screen.

 

 

[Kalo]

Another fantastic hold for Guardians! shame Alien couldn't muster more though.