Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus kicked off with an impressive $6.5 million in Thursday night previews, setting the stage for an opening weekend that could exceed $40 million. This strong debut marks another success for Disney and the summer box office.
Both 20th Century Studios and Disney opted to hold reviews until just days before the film’s release, a strategy that appears to have worked. The film currently holds an 82% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, which may help it appeal to a broader audience beyond the franchise’s core fans—primarily older males who grew up with the iconic Alien series.
Alien: Romulus is the eighth entry in the long-running franchise, taking place between Ridley Scott’s original 1979 Alien and James Cameron’s 1986 Aliens sequel. Scott also serves as a producer on this latest installment.
The R-rated film follows a group of young colonists who stumble upon an abandoned space station, only to confront the terror of the iconic alien creature that has haunted the series for decades. The cast includes Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, and Spike Fearn.
Originally intended for a streaming release on Hulu, the studio made a last-minute decision to shift to a theatrical release once production began. Álvarez shared that early into filming, the studio decided, “We’re going into theaters with this.”