Alien: Romulus is off to a strong start at the box office, earning $108.2 million worldwide in its opening weekend in theaters.
According to Variety, the Fede Álvarez-directed sci-fi horror burst onto the box office with $41.5 million from the U.S. and Canada, marking the second-best debut for the franchise after Prometheus ($51 million). These ticket sales also nudged Marvel Studios’ $1 billion mega hit Deadpool & Wolverine from the top spot after a three-week reign.
Alien: Romulus hatched a further $66.7 million overseas, with $25.7 million of those ticket sales coming from China, where the movie had the second-biggest opening of any Hollywood feature released so far this year. Globally, it has grossed over $108.2 million on a relatively modest production budget of $80 million.
Alien: Romulus takes place between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), but is its own contained story, one that, per the synopsis, follows “a group of young people on a distant world” who “find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe,” with Cailee Spaeny leading the cast of the R-rated adventure.
The movie has received generally positive reviews and currently has an 82% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. IGN called Alien: Romulus “great” in its review, saying its “back-to-basics approach to blockbuster horror boils everything fans love about the tonally-fluid franchise into one brutal, nerve-wracking experience.”
The IGN community previously ranked the Alien movies, so be sure to let us know in the comments where you think Romulus would place on this list.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter here.
