When Alien: Romulus was released it did something that no other movie had been able to do for a month when it beat Deadpool & Wolverine at the domestic box office. But the victory was short-lived, as the Marvel Studios behemoth quickly retook the crown. Don’t count out the Xenomorphs entirely, however, as the new Alien movie recently fought off Deadpool once again, and director Fede Álvarez is celebrating by killing Deadpool with a chest burster.
Deadpool & Wolverine may have won an anemic weekend box office last weekend, but on Tuesday, the most recent date for which data is complete, the most-watched movie in the country was once again Alien: Romulus. Fede Álvarez took to Twitter to celebrate taking down Deadpool and Wolverine once again and included an amazing image of the Merc with a Mouth having his chest explode courtesy of a baby Xenomorph.
And we’re back at nr1 baby. (Sorry #DeadpoolAndWolverine , you were being greedy. @VancityReynolds @RealHughJackman ) #AlienRomulus pic.twitter.com/YKiZ1DBYJoAugust 29, 2024
The image is a modified version of an actual Marvel Comics panel. In the original version, Deadpool is used as a host for the symbiote Carnage, seen on the big screen played by Woody Harrelson in the Venom sequel. At this moment, a now mature Carnage bursts out of Deadpool in a scene that was clearly designed to be reminiscent of an Alien movie, making the replacement of a Carnage with an Alien creature here rather fitting.
Watching the daily domestic box office totals may seem a little obsessive, but we can forgive Fede Álvarez for doing so. There is probably quite a lot riding on the success of Alien: Romulus. The future of Alien as a franchise, and the sort of projects that Álvarez may get offered going forward, are probably riding on the degree of success the new movie achieves.
So far, Romulus has done pretty well. The movie has achieved a global box office take of about $230 million, on a production budget estimated to be about $80 million. While that doesn’t compare to the $1 billion of Deadpool and Wolverine, it’s a solid success nonetheless.
The fact that Alien: Romulus was able to retake the box office crown, even for a day, is a good sign for the film’s overall success as well. People may have decided to go see Deadpool & Wolverine over the weekend, probably for the second time, but people haven’t given up on Romulus quite yet, the movie is still putting up solid box office numbers day after day.
Many critics are calling Romulus one of the best Alien movies so far, which, considering the first two are among the best sci-fi movies ever made, is quite a compliment. Combined with the box office the future is looking bright. A new Alien TV series is also currently in development and the movie doing well is a strong indication that the audience will tune in for the series as well.
