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.

The overseas debut on the 20th Century Studios/Disney title is 47% ahead of A Quiet Place: Day One and 17% above Prometheus in like-for-like markets at current exchange rates.

Before we dig into a full update, here are some other notable numbers from the weekend: Marvel/Disney’s Deadpool & Wolverine is now at $1.143B worldwide ($1,142.6M precisely); Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 has become the No. 1 international animated movie of all time – surpassing Frozen 2; and Illumination/Universal’s Despicable Me 4 crossed $500M overseas during the frame, one of only three titles to have achieved the milestone this year.

Meanwhile, Sony/Wayfarer Studios’ It Ends with Us has blossomed to $180M global after just 10 days.

MORE…

PREVIOUS, SATURDAY: 20th Century Studios/Disney’s Alien: Romulus is gobbling up tickets around the globe, now poised to come in with a $100M worldwide opening — significantly higher than pre-weekend projections. This is notably due to the strength of the Fede Alvarez-directed sci-fi horror at the international box office, and more specifically in China.

As Anthony has reported, domestic is looking at a $40M-$42M+ bow. With the Ridley Scott-produced franchise installment grossing $26M overseas through Friday, this portends a $60M launch internationally, tallying up to $100M global (give or take) — a terrific start and with clear weeks ahead. Good news for the industry, and for Disney in the wake of its mega-successes Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine.

In total internationally, Alien: Romulus is currently tracking 40% ahead of the opening of A Quiet Place: Day One (28% excluding China). 

It remains to be seen how frontloaded Alien: Romulus is, but what’s happening this weekend offshore is that China is over-indexing versus predictions. Initially, hopes for the fickle market, and in a competitive frame, were high-single digits (possibly $10M). On Friday, the movie came in at No. 2 with $6M, then shot up to No. 1 today. The gross through today is nearly $15M as of midnight local time. This points to a $23M China weekend which will keep it at No. 1 in the market.

Social and critical scores are strong. Maoyan is giving it a 9.1 versus comps A Quiet Place: Day One (7.1), Alien: Covenant (6.9) and Prometheus (7.6). The Douban score is 7.7, higher than AQP: Day One’s 5.6, Alien: Covenant’s 7.4 and Prometheus’ 7.6.

Elsewhere, Alien: Romulus is leading the Korea box office with $2.8M through today, and France is leaning in with $2.5M.

We’ll have a full update tomorrow.