2024 got off to a very rough start at the box office, particularly in regards to mainstream horror releases. In 2022 and 2023, horror proved to be one of the most bankable genres that theaters could depend on in the aftermath of the pandemic. Unfortunately, the likes of “Night Swim,” “Imaginary,” “Abigail,” and others disappointed earlier this year. Things have rebounded and we now have hits such as “A Quiet Place: Day One” and the unexpected $100 million hit that was “Longlegs.” One movie stands tall above the rest though, and that movie is “Alien: Romulus.” Even more crazy to consider? That movie nearly went straight to Hulu.
On its fourth weekend in theaters, director Fede Alvarez’s “Romulus” added another $3.9 million to its ever-growing total domestically. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” took the lion’s share of the attention with a massive $111 million opening, but the latest “Alien” movie is still holding its own. To that end, the film has now amassed $314.4 million worldwide, including $97.2 million domestically, making it by far the biggest horror movie of 2024 thus far. While things will change, it currently ranks as the tenth-biggest movie globally for the year just behind “Twisters” ($367 million).
“A Quiet Place: Day One” is in second place with $261.5 million as far as horror goes. From there in a distant third is the aforementioned “Longlegs” with a $103.5 million running total. While monster movies can often qualify as horror movies, I don’t think anyone could rightfully argue that “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” ($567.6 million worldwide) is horror. So, the crown goes to “Alien: Romulus.” And to think, this huge hit could have been left to languish on Hulu as a direct-to-streaming release. Fortunately, Disney didn’t make the same mistake that was made with 2022’s “Predator” prequel “Prey.”
Disney learned a valuable lesson with Alien: Romulus
Taking a slightly deeper look at the numbers, “Romulus” has a reported $80 million production budget. That’s steep for streaming but for a large-scale, sci-fi franchise film such as this? It’s not bad at all. The film has already made nearly four times its budget in ticket sales, in no small part thanks to an unusually strong showing in China, where the latest “Alien” film has made nearly $100 million. Very few Hollywood films have accomplished such feats in China in the pandemic era. All of this to say, the film is going to turn a huge profit in the end all while bringing a lot more attention to the eventual Hulu release. It’s a big win-win.
“Alien: Romulus” takes place between the events of Ridley Scott’s “Alien” and James Cameron’s “Aliens.” It centers on a group of young space colonizers who are scavenging a derelict space station, unwittingly bringing them face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. The cast is led by Cailee Spaeny (“Priscilla”), with David Jonsson (“Murder is Easy”), Archie Renaux (“Shadow and Bone”), Isabela Merced (“The Last of Us”), Spike Fearn (“Aftersun”) and newcomer Aileen Wu rounding out the ensemble.
As for why Disney had a change of heart in regards to the “Romulus” release strategy? Alvarez previously said that the Hulu decision was not made when “theaters were healthy.” To everyone’s benefit, Disney reconsidered once they realized that the state of the box office was improving. The hope now is that they take this lesson and apply it to other would-be streaming films in the future.
The most obvious example is director Dan Trachtenberg’s “Badlands,” which is another “Predator” movie he’s making in the aftermath of the success of “Prey.” One assumes they won’t make the same mistake twice with that franchise. Beyond that, perhaps this will convince Disney to give some originals a shot that might otherwise go straight to Hulu. Even if the films don’t purely profit in theaters, it works as a way to earn some investment back while also advertising the eventual streaming release. It’s truly hard to see a downside for most movies at a certain price point.
“Alien: Romulus” is in theaters now.
