‘Alien: Covenant’ Tops ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ for Weekend Box Office Win

May 21, 2017 by Douglas A. McIntyre

One old science fiction movie series topped another as “Alien: Covenant,” the eighth installment of the Alien franchise brought in $36 million at the domestic box office. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.  2,” the second installment of its franchise brought in about $1 million less. “Guardians” has brought in $301 million U.S. box office since it opened March 21.

Including international box office “Alien: Covenant” brought in $118 million. Its production budget was $97 million, according to Box Office Mojo. The eight “Alien” movies have brought in $552 million domestically, starting with the original film “Aliens” in 1986.

It is nearly impossible that “Alien: Covenant” will ever approach the success of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”. “Guardians” has been the second most successful movie of the year, based on domestic box office, bested only by “Beauty and The Beast (2017) which has reached $498 million

“Alien: Covenant” was released by the 20th Century Fox Film division of 21st Century Fox (NASDAQ: FOXA), a company controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his family

Box Office Mojo comments about the weekend:

Internationally, Covenant got its start last weekend and this weekend it brought in an estimated $30.3 million from 76 markets bringing its international total to $81.8 million for a global cume of $117.8 million. Openings this weekend included Russia ($4.4m), Germany ($2.3m) and Sweden ($822K). The film doesn’t debut in China until mid-June.

As for the demographics, opening day audiences gave Alien: Covenant a “B” CinemaScore. Of that audience, 62% were male vs. 38% female, of which 66% were 25 years or older and 51% of the audience was Caucasian, 19% Hispanic, 15% African American and 9% Asian.

“Alien: Covenant” received mixed reviews from both audiences and critics. According to film opinion site Rotten Tomatoes”, 79% of critics reviewed the film well, as did 64% of the audience. The comparable figures for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” were 81% and 90%.

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