>4th Writethru, Sunday AM: All sequelitis aside, what made 20th Century Fox’s Alien:Covenant slow down at the box office?
>Initially the Ridley Scott-directed movie looked like it was coming in at $40M, which would have repped the second best opening in the Alien franchise, but now at $36M it’s the third best behind Prometheus ($51M) and 2004’s Alien v. Predator ($38.3M).
>As major studios look for new franchises to mine, and the Alien origin stories looked very promising, this is not what any studio executive hopes for, especially with a vintage brand like Alien. If Star Wars and Jurassic Park can boost their grosses off of both old fans and new, why can’t Alien?
>For a moment last night, one distributor even predicted that Disney/Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 might beat the Prometheus sequel for No. 1 after a 70% surge Saturday over Friday with $15 million. But Disney is calling second place for GOTG2 with $35.1M in its third weekend and a running cume of $301.7M.
>From a marketing perspective, what went amiss with Alien: Covenant was the fact that in its materials Fox went strictly after the Alien fanboy crowd versus the general lay moviegoers who determine how big your movie is going to be. Some fans griped that Prometheus lacked the classic Xenomorph alien, so Fox in their materials sold the picture with a focus on the old Alien, the one everyone was supposedly wanted.
Alien Covenant >lets try a creation type story >failure
Jayden Carter
Ridley Scott is senile
Grayson Bell
HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Christopher Collins
What went wrong was they spoiled the entire movie with the trailers
You see like four characters die just in the trailers and then you see the xeno bumping around on top of the ship in daylight.
Also, the origin story of the alien and space jockey is pure shit.
Noah Turner
Some of those scenes aren't in the final movie though
Carson Wilson
I don't remember what was or wasn't in it from the yrsilers, but they definitely didn't leave any suspense
The ending was leaked months ago, and everyone was saying there's no way they would do something as cliche as David switching with Walter.
Parker Long
>If Star Wars and Jurassic Park can boost their grosses off of both old fans and new, why can’t Alien? >Some fans griped that Prometheus lacked the classic Xenomorph alien, so Fox in their materials sold the picture with a focus on the old Alien, the one everyone was supposedly wanted.
how about making a movie with a purpose that isn't fucking money
Carson Martinez
good. maybe they'll stop making them now
Aiden Roberts
Charlize theron geting blacked by idris elba did it for me
Wyatt Stewart
I avoided the trailers like the plague and there still wasn't any suspense. The movie was poorly paced and completely predictable. It was bad.
Hudson Scott
Only cost 90m it'll be fine.
Kevin Reyes
>Studio: lets make a prequel series of alien >Ridley: I want it to be 2deep4u kino,so let's remove the alien Studio: This shit makes no sense, put the alien back on for the sequel >Ridley: Say no more
Nathan Anderson
>Turn a a million year old alien fossil into a suit of a greek god infected by a human android created just 20 years before alien >Mad that old alien fans do't like it
Jaxson Long
The problem with "using a vintage brand like Alien" is that the brand is literally only good for telling one type of story and that is one where a bunch of clueless idiots get into a situation they can't handle.
And the audience is sick of that already since it plays out the same every time.
Joshua Torres
Too bad they can't not shit on AvP.
They'd have a lot of freedom for horror and action, if they could stop the tropes
Ian Powell
So next Alien is PG-13 summer fun?
Sheeeeeeet
Liam Powell
kikes are so successful are dumbing western civilization down to the point that the average person is little more than meat with eyeballs that only wants to watch capeshit.
Liam Taylor
Prometheus should've been its own thing and unrelated to the Alien franchise.
That would open it up to different patterns of storytelling.
Instead we got TWO movies now where a bunch of "professionals" abandon all protocol and act like idiots only to get killed off one by one because of their stupidity.
Dominic Sullivan
I think people are forgetting that Scott's not some penniless nobody. Looking at his box office history he'll be fine regardless of how Covenant performs. I really doubt Fox is gonna take the Alien franchise away from him, especially since Scott's the original director and in general such a big name that he can't be pushed around by execs.
David Torres
What are you even trying to say?
That Scott "owns" the franchise? No he doesn't. In order to make the next one he needs funding coming from a studio that owns the IP. If a movie underperforms they will simply not greenlight the sequel or delay it.
You're talking like Scott both owns the IP and pays for the movie himself.
Cameron White
>especially since Scott's the original director and in general such a big name that he can't be pushed around by execs.
A big name with a series of senile hack tier movies.
At this point just say fuck it and make a totally unattached alien movie that Scott can't get his mushy brained claws into.
Logan Ross
>missing the point entirely so this is the power... of reddit
Jeremiah Hernandez
>If Star Wars and Jurassic Park can boost their grosses off of both old fans and new, why can’t Alien? Because Alien fans, unlike Star Wars fans are not shit eaters who would eat any turd. Jurassic Park is for kids mostly because WOW DINOSAURS! Prometheus was so fucking trash it broke the camel's back. I'm not going to bother with Covenant - which is the continuation of an old, senile and demented Alzheimer faggot fucking the corpse of Prometheus.
Daniel Ross
They tried way too hard to 'reinvent' Ripley
Every Alien-related movie doesn't need a Ripley clone. Try out some other characterization
Also, I wasn't even expecting David from any of the ads I saw. I would've been mega hyped if I knew that beforehand
Wyatt Perez
This. Ridley already said that the next one will cost even less
Matthew Mitchell
Have we started the fire?
Nicholas Foster
Fox wasn't scared away from working with Scott after Kingdom of Heaven or Exodus, why would this be the tipping point?
Evan Adams
>f Star Wars and Jurassic Park can boost their grosses off of both old fans and new, why can’t Alien?
R rating
also no reddit humor cool factor like Deadpool
Gabriel Roberts
When you make a tedious movie with zero suspense, people stop going to see it?
Jason Garcia
>didn't expect david
I am shocked that you are capable of solving a captcha
William Edwards
how can anyone be surprised by this? Prometheus' extreme disappointment had already set this movie up for failure. Even if it were actually good it would have still underperformed.
It's like if they made a new Mass Effect game.. ME: Andromeda sold alright because of the ME brand name, but if they make another one, the damage done to the brand by Andromeda's disappointment will destroy its sales no matter what
Liam Ross
why the fuck are they using AUGs
how hard is it to make a sci fi gun
also the woman looks weak, Noomi was better even though she was fucking annoying
>waking up a fucking space jockey, tense as shit >ASK HIM WHY HE DID IT! SCREAM SCREAM SCREAM
Kayden Flores
well fuck me for expecting prometheus and alien to be separate franchises a bit longer
Jack Kelly
most iconic sci-fi guns are just regular gun / replicas with random shit glued on them
Logan Ross
Don't worry, I'm sure the third time will be the charm.
You should go count how many of Scott's movies have earned twice their budget globally.
Logan Torres
Wait
In AvP aren't we led to believe the xenomorphs have been around for thousands of years? The Predators were breeding them for sport in an ancient earth pyramid
But now we see that they are created hundreds of years into our future, by a man-made machine
Jordan Diaz
Was hoping that flute scene would have been David re-programming Walter
Gavin Howard
Principal photography for this movie alone cost 111 million dollars.
Caleb Scott
i saw this on friday, there were like 30-40 people in there it was the second day it was in cinemas here in germany
Parker Allen
I wish I could go back in time and not buy a ticket.
Nicholas Lewis
>why would this be the tipping point?
Because it's a seriously potential franchise killer. Not something you want to see when you're trying to make long term profits
Kingdom of Heaven and Exodus were forgetful one offs no one cares about.
Liam Johnson
The alien franchise already died once.
Jayden Long
>Alien vs. Predator
I don't get the hate.
If they expanded on this they could clearly establish an intergalactic warfare series where humanity is stuck in a war between Alien species.
The Prometheans weaponized the xenomorphs for a reason.
Who were they fighting?
Liam Davis
SURE CAN'T WAIT FOR A FLOOD OF BLOG EDITORIALS BLAMING ITS FAILURE AT THE BOX OFFICE ON PEOPLE REJECTING FEMALE PROTAGONISTS. AGAIN.
Bentley Martinez
Thanks - this is what was bothering me so much and couldn't quite put my finger on it until I re-watched Alien again post-Covenant. The first time you see that ship and the fossilized space jockey it builds a much larger mystery in your mind making humans feel vastly insignificant and vulnerable. Also the size difference was greater in Alien, the jockey was much bigger, making the humans feel like little kids. Scott had to fuck that up in Prometheus so we could get face-to face with the humans and engineers in a two-shot.
Noah Turner
really makes you think
David made them again because the yautjas hunted them to extinction
Jayden Lewis
>they could clearly establish an intergalactic warfare series where humanity is stuck in a war between Alien species
this is what they tried to do with Independence Day 2
Ryder King
but how long until yautja vs engineer?
Aiden Martin
>this is what they tried to do with Independence Day 2
Explain, I didn't watch it.
Jaxson Watson
Ridley fucked the entire Alien franchine,
Instead of the Alien creature being these primordial biological creatures that were perfect killing machines waiting for some unsuspecting people to take them from their home planet and unleashing them to the universe - they are now creations of some nutso android created by humans. FUCKING STUPID. Nevermind that if David really wanted to created the ultimate killing instrument, he had them in those spores that all you needed was to breathe them in or have them enter your ear and then a few hours later, you DIED. Who the fuck needed aliens in the 1st place ??
Luke Murphy
"In the end, it is the mystery that lasts and not the explanation."
That's what he missed. The power of the viewer's imagination is far stronger than any backstory he could have come up with. These prequel films were doomed from the start.
Dylan Sullivan
>Instead of the Alien creature being these primordial biological creatures that were perfect killing machines
They weren't perfect. They can easily be killed by a few mid caliber rounds. They're silicate based so they're basically walking glass creatures with acid blood. Their strength was intelligence and close range lethality.
In Alien Ripley had a chance of survival by using her wits, in Aliens the Marines had weapons.
The problem with the Neomorphs is now they're bulletproof, completely destroying the survivability any human encounter and thus any actual tension.
Isaiah Ortiz
You're better off not knowing
Liam Flores
Neomorphs aren't bullet proof, the crew were just terrible shots.
Christian Allen
>potential franchise killer >when it made more than Alien and Aliens
James Butler
I don't think it's ONLY that. It's that now the xeno was created in large part by humanity. Honestly, who ever wanted this to be the case? It's ALIEN, not partly-human.
Aiden Young
I paid four bongs to see this pile of shit and still feel cheated. Give me my money back Ridley.
Nolan Rivera
FOOL
Josiah Bennett
NO ONE GIVES A FUCK ABOUT FUCKING COLONISTS, PEOPLE WANT TO SEE MARINES VS XENOS
Parker Anderson
You think Ridley's nonsensical bullshit is better than Marvel? Fuck that.
Gavin Perry
It's made beaucoup money overseas already. US box office doesn't mean a whole lot now.
Angel Harris
blame fox for forcing him to shove xenos in it
Dominic Collins
How long until his fanboys claim the directors cut is one of the great films of all time?
William Flores
maybe if they had an 80s cheese tune track playing and poop jokes in the trailer this would be a hit?
Jason Cook
SHOULD HAVE MADE THE FOREVER WAR YOU OLD COCKSUCKER!!!FACT!!!
Liam Nelson
They made a new Alien movie? This is new news to me.