Alien: Covenant Box Office Performance

[Robopadna]

It's made it's budget back, but Fox will no doubt be interfering in the follow up big time. I'll be surprised if Ridley directs again - he'll be producer of course, but I can see Nicolas Refn or even Matt Reeves sinking their teeth into this.

A:C isn't a poor film, it's just average with some intriguing moments. But if you really want to re-ignite the franchise, you need Ripley back for one last stand, one last battle against the xeno's...and the corporate suits!

No, it did not.  People need to stop saying this...   it hasn't made half of it back of just the production cost, let alone advertising and distribution.

Globally the takings are just under $120m. The movie's budget is estimated no more than $110m...I'd say it's made it's money back. WITH DVD/RENTALS you're looking around $300m - ok, not as strong as Prometheus, but by no means a flop.

Alien 5 probably coming sooner than we think, for Fox's sake.

That isn't how it works.  The studio gets 50% of the domestic take and 40% of foreign...  33% of china.

So no, it has not even made half it's production cost back.  Let alon marketing and distribution which is another 100+.

[Noah]

It's made it's budget back, but Fox will no doubt be interfering in the follow up big time. I'll be surprised if Ridley directs again - he'll be producer of course, but I can see Nicolas Refn or even Matt Reeves sinking their teeth into this.

A:C isn't a poor film, it's just average with some intriguing moments. But if you really want to re-ignite the franchise, you need Ripley back for one last stand, one last battle against the xeno's...and the corporate suits!

No, it did not.  People need to stop saying this...   it hasn't made half of it back of just the production cost, let alone advertising and distribution.

Globally the takings are just under $120m. The movie's budget is estimated no more than $110m...I'd say it's made it's money back. WITH DVD/RENTALS you're looking around $300m - ok, not as strong as Prometheus, but by no means a flop.

Alien 5 probably coming sooner than we think, for Fox's sake.

This. Even without taking into account DVD/rentals,300M is totally possible and I don't see how it could be considered a flop. Correct me if I'm wrong but Prometheus wasn't released in China. This has that market too,and the budget is considerably lower.
From Forbes:

The good news is that 20th Century Fox and friends spent just $97 million on this picture, as opposed to the $130m that was spent on Prometheus. A 25% smaller budget means they can afford to make a lot less money here and abroad and still come out okay. The film received mixed-positive reviews and may yet triumph overseas. If the film has the same post-weekend legs as Prometheus than we're looking at an $88m domestic total. However, if it's as frontloaded as Alien vs. Predator then it'll be a $76m total which will put it below the domestic cumes of Prometheus ($126m), Aliens ($86m) and Alien ($78m). Again, this isn't a code red catastrophe, especially if it plays well outside of North America.

I don't have overseas figures at the moment, but an eventual over/under $300 million worldwide gross for an R-rated Alien movie shouldn't be taken as a defeat, but rather a sign that these films don't justify bigger budgets.

Sure,a 40M opening would have been better,but 36M is not a bad result at all for R-rated sci-fi horror that is part of a niche franchise. Also,it's not released in 3D and the number of IMAX screens is really lower than Prometheus. But that's not even the most important reason why Prometheus and A:C shouldn't be compared. Prometheus was treated as an event. Forbes' BO analyst is also right with his argument about the whole  promotion. Prometheus was promoted as an original sci-fi thriller that can appeal to a wider audience. Also,Deadline pointed out that there's definitely confusion for the average moviegoer. Mixed reactions on social media -Prometheus sequel..uhm,no,it's an Alien film,and so on- didn't help either.

BTW,it's still very strange that Fox didn't leave it in August. It would have done much better. The real problem is not the opening number,but the insane competion in the next weeks.

[gantarat]

It's made it's budget back, but Fox will no doubt be interfering in the follow up big time. I'll be surprised if Ridley directs again - he'll be producer of course, but I can see Nicolas Refn or even Matt Reeves sinking their teeth into this.

A:C isn't a poor film, it's just average with some intriguing moments. But if you really want to re-ignite the franchise, you need Ripley back for one last stand, one last battle against the xeno's...and the corporate suits!

No, it did not.  People need to stop saying this...   it hasn't made half of it back of just the production cost, let alone advertising and distribution.

Globally the takings are just under $120m. The movie's budget is estimated no more than $110m...I'd say it's made it's money back. WITH DVD/RENTALS you're looking around $300m - ok, not as strong as Prometheus, but by no means a flop.

Alien 5 probably coming sooner than we think, for Fox's sake.

That isn't how it works.  The studio gets 50% of the domestic take and 40% of foreign...  33% of china.

So no, it has not even made half it's production cost back.  Let alon marketing and distribution which is another 100+.

So that mean Fox get 18,000,000 on Domestic and 49,129,117.2 on Foreign.

= 67,129,117.2

[Noah]

It's made it's budget back, but Fox will no doubt be interfering in the follow up big time. I'll be surprised if Ridley directs again - he'll be producer of course, but I can see Nicolas Refn or even Matt Reeves sinking their teeth into this.

A:C isn't a poor film, it's just average with some intriguing moments. But if you really want to re-ignite the franchise, you need Ripley back for one last stand, one last battle against the xeno's...and the corporate suits!

No, it did not.  People need to stop saying this...   it hasn't made half of it back of just the production cost, let alone advertising and distribution.

Globally the takings are just under $120m. The movie's budget is estimated no more than $110m...I'd say it's made it's money back. WITH DVD/RENTALS you're looking around $300m - ok, not as strong as Prometheus, but by no means a flop.

Alien 5 probably coming sooner than we think, for Fox's sake.

That isn't how it works.  The studio gets 50% of the domestic take and 40% of foreign...  33% of china.

So no, it has not even made half it's production cost back.  Let alon marketing and distribution which is another 100+.

Right,but this is just the second week.. IF it makes 300M,the studio will make some profit too. Also,I really doubt they've spent 100+ for marketing and distribution. It'd be insane with that budget. And while the marketing was good (imo),nothing I saw can justify that number. Funnily enugh,I see people saying that they didn't even know the movie was coming out and that the marketing was horrible lol.

[echobbase79]

They spent $22.35 million on tv ads alone.

And if people still don't know about this movie, then Fox failed miserably in getting the word out there. Personally, I don't think they did. I think GoTG2 is what people want to see more of. Covenant is very grim, and that could hurt its take in as well.

[cucuchu]

Just to clarify, is everyone going off the 110 million budget stated by Ridley Scott or the 90-something million budget reported last week?

[Robopadna]

It's made it's budget back, but Fox will no doubt be interfering in the follow up big time. I'll be surprised if Ridley directs again - he'll be producer of course, but I can see Nicolas Refn or even Matt Reeves sinking their teeth into this.

A:C isn't a poor film, it's just average with some intriguing moments. But if you really want to re-ignite the franchise, you need Ripley back for one last stand, one last battle against the xeno's...and the corporate suits!

No, it did not.  People need to stop saying this...   it hasn't made half of it back of just the production cost, let alone advertising and distribution.

Globally the takings are just under $120m. The movie's budget is estimated no more than $110m...I'd say it's made it's money back. WITH DVD/RENTALS you're looking around $300m - ok, not as strong as Prometheus, but by no means a flop.

Alien 5 probably coming sooner than we think, for Fox's sake.

That isn't how it works.  The studio gets 50% of the domestic take and 40% of foreign...  33% of china.

So no, it has not even made half it's production cost back.  Let alon marketing and distribution which is another 100+.

Right,but this is just the second week.. IF it makes 300M,the studio will make some profit too. Also,I really doubt they've spent 100+ for marketing and distribution. It'd be insane with that budget. And while the marketing was good (imo),nothing I saw can justify that number. Funnily enugh,I see people saying that they didn't even know the movie was coming out and that the marketing was horrible lol.

It was easily 100 million in advertising.  Ads on tv are EXPENSIVE and they were everywhere.  Your own individual idiosyncratic experiences aren't what actually happened.  It's like people claiming their theater was packed so it had to have made a lot.  It didn't.  It did the very low end of the prediction band.

If it makes 300 million that means the domestic take was likely small.  If the split is 80- vs 220 that means the studio took in about 125 million.  That is not enough to come close to breaking even at the box office.  Now there are other revenue streams but there are additional costs associated with them as well.  Prometheus made about 40 million in physical media sales but there was a cost to produce, advertise and distribute those as well. 

In the end, Covenant might break even.  Which is certainly a major disappointment for the studio that thought they had figured out why Prometheus wasn't the hit they expected.

Just to clarify, is everyone going off the 110 million budget stated by Ridley Scott or the 90-something million budget reported last week?

For strict production, it's the 97 or whatever.  Overall that won't really matter BO wise.

[cucuchu]

They spent $22.35 million on tv ads alone.

Are TV ads not the bulk of marketting costs?

[Robopadna]

They spent $22.35 million on tv ads alone.

Are TV ads not the bulk of marketting costs?

There are lots of ways marketing and distributing come into play but tv ads are likely the largest single expense (outside of the murky world of distribution).

[bb-15]

They spent $22.35 million on tv ads alone.

And if people still don't know about this movie, then Fox failed miserably in getting the word out there. Personally, I don't think they did. I think GoTG2 is what people want to see more of. Covenant is very grim, and that could hurt its take in as well.

If $22.35 million is the TV ad number for "Covenant", then the total marketing budget for the movie will not be more than $50 million.
This reasonable cost would be more support that "Covenant" should make a profit in theaters.

[Robopadna]

They spent $22.35 million on tv ads alone.

And if people still don't know about this movie, then Fox failed miserably in getting the word out there. Personally, I don't think they did. I think GoTG2 is what people want to see more of. Covenant is very grim, and that could hurt its take in as well.

If $22.35 million is the TV ad number for "Covenant", then the total marketing budget for the movie will not be more than $50 million.
This reasonable cost would be more support that "Covenant" should make a profit in theaters.

I'm sorry but you are just wrong. The marketing and distribution was very much in line with known 100 million dollar efforts.

It is what it is. Honestly the ad cost is much higher than other large tentople 100-150 million dollar campaigns.

Covenant will most likely not make any profit at all in the theatres. Normally that isn't a huge deal but they really think they have a tent pole franchise here and they thought they had fixed their problems with Prometheus under performing.

[Protozoid]

http://deadline.com/2017/05/alien-covenant-diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-everything-everything-box-office-previews-1202097673/

Pretty much 30% decline from Prometheus.

When you adjust for inflation, maybe, yeah. Even when you take into account that Covenant cost less, this one still appears to be performing below Prometheus.  AvP was probably massively more successful due to the budget.  I expect the next Alien movie will have a similar sized budget to AvP, and someone other than Ridley Scott directing. Jake Scott?

Hi Elijah;
From box office mojo;
- AVP did alright.
Production Budget: $60 million
Worldwide box office: $172,544,654   
That is box office which is about 2.87 times the production budget

Compare that with "Covenant" after its first weekend in the US. Realize it will make more money in theaters after this.
Production Budget: $97 million
To match AVP multiply that by 2.87 which = about $278 million.
I'm certain that "Covenant" will make more than that in theaters.
Currently its Worldwide box office is at:    $117,881,862.
And there is a long way to go.

True, but I was only looking at opening weekends, because those are the only numbers we have.  In terms of opening weekends, AvP did substantially better, nearly $12 million more when adjusted for inflation.  It's $13 million below Prometheus, and it's dropping faster, too...

[Richman678]

I think the amount of money they lose on Pirates in 2 weeks will make these numbers low.

I know I have said this a lot, but this summer movie is slated to lose more money than any other summer.

[Robopadna]

I think the amount of money they lose on Pirates in 2 weeks will make these numbers low.

I know I have said this a lot, but this summer movie is slated to lose more money than any other summer.

I don't know if pirates will bomb or not. Over seas they consistently pull in a massive amount of money. They are usually 1 billion world wide.

Plus their media sales and toy lines are huge revenue streams.

You could be right though. Depp is not on a great streak recently

[Richman678]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-braces-big-decline-at-summer-box-office-1001473