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Sinks Teeth Into $108M+ Global Debut, Aided By Unexpected China Burst

posted 3 months ago by Satan2016 (25525)
19 replies | jump to latest

https://deadline.com/2024/08/alien-romulus-china-global-international-box-office-1236042797/

SUNDAY UPDATE, Refresh for latest…: Alien: Romulus has chomped into a $108.2M global opening, including $41.5M from domestic and $66.7M at the international box office. The Fede Alvarez-directed sci-fi horror came in well ahead of expectations, aided, as we noted yesterday (see below), by an over-performance in China. The start there was $25.7M, making it the 2nd best opening for a Hollywood movie in 2024.

[–] olioz (3675) 3 months ago

I hope that this is a big hit so that Fede Alvarez gets to make another one.

[–] Guitar King (4893) 3 months ago

Hollywood blockbusters were way better in the 1980s when American movies were banned in China.

[–] redban (6194) 3 months ago

China is the one country where a lot of the box-office sales don't come back to the studios/film-makers

[–] TheArgentinian (7072) 3 months ago

where did you get that from?

[–] redban (6194) 3 months ago

https://qz.com/981277/the-fast-furious-franchise-is-huge-in-china-but-probably-isnt-making-much-money-there

China sets strict annual quotas on the number of foreign “imported” films screened in commercial movie theaters each year, and grants studios only 25% of the box-office revenue as their take, compared to the standard 50% in the US, and 40% in most other countries.

As a result, despite the country’s massive consumer market and growing appetite for the cinema, film producers reap a relatively small percentage of a movie’s success there.

[–] bozo_500 (13118) 3 months ago

This will clear 200m ww easy (100m domestic)

Prob end up similar to Covenant 240m ww

[–] Zarkoff (1857) 3 months ago

80 million budget so if it beats Covenant, it's profitable.

It's good that they found a way to make this for a sub 100 million budget. Movies like this that aren't going to find a huge, blockbuster audience but still reach enough people to make 200-300 million should be able to be made if done right.

[–] bozo_500 (13118) 3 months ago

Apparently Covenant was made for just under 100m, so wasn't really the bomb ppl try to make it (although was a disappointment bc Prometheus made 400m, and Covenant only made 75m domestic to Prometheus' 125m)

[–] [deleted] 3 months ago

This is soaring towards a potential $300 million worldwide final gross thanks to China. Word on the net is that the Chinese have never seen anything like this.

[–] [deleted] 3 months ago

It's up to $73.6 million in China alone. It only dropped 25% in it's second weekend. The Chinese are fucking LOVING this movie.

Apparently this is one of the first (if not the first) Western R-rated movies to release in China unaltered, the Chinese can't believe their eyes at the graphic horror. Perhaps the most hardcore movie to hit the big screen in China. A truly watershed moment.

[–] Cognoscente (2648) 3 months ago

I'm reminded of how Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was better received in the U.S. than in Chinese territories because the Chinese were jaded by the content.

[–] bozo_500 (13118) 3 months ago

I'm loving the thought that the Chinese are FREAKED OUT by Alien 1979 style! 😄

[–] [deleted] 3 months ago

#MeToo

I'm happy for them to finally get a proper R-rated movie. The China cinema censorship was very strong but apparently they're starting to loosen the restrictions, with this being the first horror-style movie to get released full throttle.

It's clear that the audiences are responding well so hopefully the Chinese market becomes another viable market for R-rated movies, especially horror-style ones, it would do cinema a world of good.

The Chinese cinema market is huge, only matched/bested by the USA. It's true that the Chinese cinema chains keep 75% of the revenue as opposed to the US model of a 50-50 split between cinema and movie distributer, so a dollar from China isn't of the same value as a dollar from the US but it's still more money on the table and with cinemas struggling post-COVID it's much needed additional revenue. The more western movies that get a China release the better.

[–] Porsche911 (3598) 3 months ago

We have colleagues in China and the film is hyped there. Especially the birth and breastfeeding sequences and where the alien and the spiders work together. It’s talked about. The film might grow there.

[–] [deleted] 3 months ago

I saw a story online that Alien: Romulus went viral online in China because a Chinese mother took her very young son to see the movie and he had to go to the hospital due to fright (perhaps a panic attack?).

The Chinese haven't experienced true R-rated content before so this movie is all the rage right now.

[–] bozo_500 (13118) 3 months ago

Damn, I don't blame him being scared and put in hospital , I dint see Alien & Aliens until I was like 14 or 15 and was pretty freaked out then!, i couldn't imagine seeing this one with modern fx at a younger age lol

[–] [deleted] 3 months ago

Yeah, I forget what age he was... definitely single digit, 6 or 8 I think. Too young to be watching a horror movie in theatres. In the mother's defense, as we've been talking about, this is the first R-rated movie to not be censored. So this is uncharted territory for them.

I saw Halloween (1978) when I was 10 and needed to fetch a bible.

[–] bozo_500 (13118) 3 months ago

I should add the two Alien films I saw were only on vhs i couldnt imagine seeing them in a Dolby theatre at even that age, id have been traumatized! I remember feeling very uneasy seeing Event Horizon in theatre at about 20 when I realised it was an 18 (hard R in UK like Alien).

Another thing I remember after seeing Alien/s was having a bit of an existential crises, it awakened my mind as to what horrors could be out there in space, probably bc the films felt so realistic (and bc of that were far more terrifying than the usual scifi stuff) ..

[–] Porsche911 (3598) 3 months ago

Very nice and well deserved!