Weekend thread August 16th-18th Alien Romulus $6.5m previews

[ZeroHour]

This new Alien has had a much better marketing campaign than Furiosa did. Those trailers for Furiosa were pretty uninspiring. I would also suspect this new Alien would be doing a lot worse if it were centered around a new actress playing a younger version of Ripley. Even with Theron, Furiosa probably isn't some big hit, but doing it without her was pretty dumb.

[CJohn]

19 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

Ehhh? Ripley/Signourey is kind of important to Alien lol. More importantly, I don't know too many hip, non-white people talking about fucking Alien nowadays, seems just as square as Mad Max, which is my general point. But I can't claim to have my fingers directly on the pulse or anything.

 

34 minutes ago, Eric Ripley said:

 

To be fair, the first four movies had Sigourney Weaver, who is just as, if not more synonymous with Alien than the xenomorphs. And even with Prometheus, Michael Fassbender was all over the advertising, and he was fresh off both Inglorious Basterds and X-Men at the time. I think it was fair to say a cast full of no-name actors for a franchise that always had at least one recurring and popular actor could have been trouble. Especially since said franchise hasn't had a big crowdpleaser success since the Reagan administration. But I guess Clay and I were wrong.

Very important but not the main selling point. The main selling point is seeing the creature again.

[Mandatory]

10 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

Ehhh? Ripley/Signourey is kind of important to Alien lol. More importantly, I don't know too many hip, non-white people talking about fucking Alien nowadays, seems just as square as Mad Max, which is my general point. But I can't claim to have my fingers directly on the pulse or anything.

 

I guess I'll have to break the news to all the non-white people I know who were looking forward to this (as they like the 'Alien' movies) that they're doing their race wrong--and, by the way, I think anyone still using "hip" to describe what's currently popular with younger generations probably doesn't have much insight in that area

[Eric the Marxist]

19 minutes ago, Cmasterclay said:

Ehhh? Ripley/Signourey is kind of important to Alien lol. More importantly, I don't know too many hip, non-white people talking about fucking Alien nowadays, seems just as square as Mad Max, which is my general point. But I can't claim to have my fingers directly on the pulse or anything.

I was in the same boat, but to be fair horror does go a long way in getting nonwhite appeal. Like Halloween Ends had more Latino (36%) than Caucasian (33%). Although Kills had more Caucasian (38%) than Latino (33%). The recent Exorcist movie also had more Latino (41%) than Caucasian (30%). Just wanted to throw that out there.

[AniNate]

1 hour ago, filmlover said:

Fantastic debuts for Alien and Coraline. The latter's going to post one of the bigger debuts for a re-release in a while, impressive considering it's a much newer movie than the majority of the other titles that have been reissued lately.

 

Coraline isn't available as part of any streaming subscription rn, which helps at the box office compared to all the Disney rereleases which were never taken off D+. 

[AniNate]

Re Alien, Sigourney/Ripley hasn't been involved in the franchise since the years started beginning with 2 and I think the fanbase has come to a consensus that her time has passed. The xenomorph is indeed why people still show up these days, the marketing really picked up in the weeks leading up with solidly bone-chilling trailers, and it sounds like Fede more or less didn't embarrass himself with the final product and with all those ingredients you get a respectable late summer hit.

[titanic2187]

1 hour ago, VanillaSkies said:

Considering it’s supposed to bump up to about 2500 theatres for the weekend and that it’s family friendly, it should definitely have a nice weekend ahead. 

3.1m on the OD is better than re-release last year that had 2.2m on OD. Yes, it got higher theater count advantage but the PTA isn't too lower at 2k as compared to 2.5k. The re-release last year also didn't cover weekend, so perhaps it can capture more families crowd. 

[Flopped]

I'm stunned by Coraline's performance. Sorry Alien, but that's the real story of the weekend. 

[AnthonyJPHer]

If it has really good increases it’s possible Coraline does 20m opening weekend but that’s very unlikely, at most it’ll do 15m or probably closer to 10m. Re-releases are extremely front loaded 

[filmlover]

Apparently the Coraline re-issue is a "remastered" version which is kind of odd for a movie that's only 15 years old and came out during the height of the 3D craze. Unless the old 3D print was discarded (just like the 70mm IMAX prints for Interstellar reportedly were). Given that the first movie was projected digitally was in '99 (The Phantom Menace), I have to imagine every major movie made since at least the mid-2000s (and probably even earlier than that) has a digital print in the studio vault ready to be reissued whenever they want.

[Cmasterclay]

44 minutes ago, Mandatory said:

 

I guess I'll have to break the news to all the non-white people I know who were looking forward to this (as they like the 'Alien' movies) that they're doing their race wrong--and, by the way, I think anyone still using "hip" to describe what's currently popular with younger generations probably doesn't have much insight in that area

Oh hey, I fully acknowledge that in my post. I guess I just kind of think of this as, I don't know, nerdy. Which is fine! The nerds have won, in general.

[kayumanggi]

 

[Assassin]

21 minutes ago, kayumanggi said:

 

Why is Civil War not considered an independent film?

[titanic2187]

Until today, I still can't comprehend how did Weaver got her acting nomination for Aliens. It was not that her acting isn't great, it is just a wonder how performance for action-horror got into voters' radar. 

[TomThomas]

8 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

Until today, I still can't comprehend how did Weaver got her acting nomination for Aliens. It was not that her acting isn't great, it is just a wonder how performance for action-horror got into voters' radar. 

The movie and perfomance were so good it overcame genre bias. It would've gotten Best Picture nomination if it was released today, maybe Best Director as well, bias against sci-fi, horror and foregin films was too strong back then, so Weaver getting an acting nom for it is a miracle indeed.

Edited August 16 by TomThomas

[JimmyB]

I never thought of the Alien franchise as nerdy.  Star Trek was nerdy, Dune nerdy.  Aliens was always in the Predator/Terminator world, IMO. Stuff that has the majority of things guys like action, horror, cool looking shit fucking stuff up, lol.  

[Flopped]

19 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

Until today, I still can't comprehend how did Weaver got her acting nomination for Aliens. It was not that her acting isn't great, it is just a wonder how performance for action-horror got into voters' radar. 

 

SiGodney was just too undeniable. 

[AniNate]

 

[TalismanRing]

16 minutes ago, AniNate said:

 

 

Kids with infinitely more common sens than their parents.  That second kid is already plotting his escape to an out of state college.

[Mulder]

2 hours ago, Cmasterclay said:

Ehhh? Ripley/Signourey is kind of important to Alien lol. More importantly, I don't know too many hip, non-white people talking about fucking Alien nowadays, seems just as square as Mad Max, which is my general point. But I can't claim to have my fingers directly on the pulse or anything.

No offense dude but this is just categorically false and wrong. As a POC who's friends are mainly POC and have been to POC filled conventions, Alien is huge with us.

 

EDIT: For example was at a con last weekend and there was an older black woman dressed as Ripley and this is something I've seen multiple times.

Edited August 16 by Mulder