Alien: Covenant Box Office Performance

[Vrastal]

Ripley is too over used, between the books and games fox loves to shoehorn her into everything alien.  I like Prometheus and Covenant 

But i still want a movie where its a new cast of characters and new actors.  A new alien gane would be amazing as well.

[monkeylove]

They should not have done the prequels, especially given the change in tone (towards myth, etc.). The franchise has essentially been about aliens vs. humans, and should have stayed that way. The writers, etc., kept imagining turning the background story into something like 2001, and it's not working.

[OmegaZilla]

turning the background story into something like 2001,

I f**kin wish it was like 2001 mate

[monkeylove]

I f**kin wish it was like 2001 mate

A horror-action franchise? Why?

[Aquarius8]

They should not have done the prequels, especially given the change in tone (towards myth, etc.). The franchise has essentially been about aliens vs. humans, and should have stayed that way. The writers, etc., kept imagining turning the background story into something like 2001, and it's not working.

George Lucas changed the game, The Star Wars Prequels despite not being critical darlings were hugely influential on Hollywood.   Now every major Director wants to Prequelized Legendary stories.   Ridley, Peter Jackson.   Even Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy was really a prequelized storyline as it was Batman as a young man. I think they even did an "Exorcist" Prequel about the preacher.  "Planet of the Apes" is just about to finish a Prequel Trilogy.  I'm not mad at the Alien Prequels because Ridley was correct.  James nor David answered the questions from the original Alien.  "Who's the dead Jockey and where did that ship come from and how did Wayland know about the Alien Specimen".   I just think the idea of doing 4 Prequels films is too much. 

There needs to be one more Prequel film.  Tie up the Trilogy in "Awakening" and connect it to "Alien".  Then we do "Alien V" in a different timeframe introduction a new protagonist to carry on the franchise in the future.   Shaw and Daniels were basically Ripley Proxy's.  Nothing against them because I liked both characters motivations but it was about having Strong Female characters.  Fine, you go into the future, Post-Ripley with a new strong Female Character to make the face of the franchise.   My point is when you get to 40 years, you don't end it.  There are are millions of Aliens fans out there around the world.  I just think they have to figure out a Post-Ripley storyline. 

[Kane's other son]

People keep writing that Weaver is the big box office draw, as if Resurrection never happened. And that was 20 years ago, when she was still young and Aliens was just over a decade old.

[OmegaZilla]

A horror-action franchise? Why?

in what universe is 2001 horror-action?

[Richman678]

i think word of mouth killed this movie.

I also dont see how this movie got high reviews that it did it's a rushed mess.

[Le Celticant]

"Alien: Covenant" has not been released in China (June 16) and Japan (September 15), two very important foreign film markets. So, is actually kind of premature to call it a "flop"... 

International market for a film has usually little impact.
Prices are mostly based on fixed bids, not adjustment where fox earn a $ on every ticket which is why it's very hard to make a lot of money in the international market unless your movie takes off and loads of theater actually buy the film and plans to buy a prolonged time during which it'll stay on screen. But this is very rare and the competition in Asia is even harder since they also have a very strong market now (especially in India and China).

George Lucas changed the game, The Star Wars Prequels despite not being critical darlings were hugely influential on Hollywood.   Now every major Director wants to Prequelized Legendary stories.

It's more influential than the idea of studio wanting prequels (which already existed before by the way).
It's the first time a film (series) attempts to have as many VFX shots (around 2000 per films) whereas the average for huge blockbuster at the time was around 200-400 (it multiplied between x5 and x10 times) done in so little time (3 years for the entire post-production) and was hugely influential on pre-visualization technologies, green screen direct feedback, first time digital camera use (well actually second, Vidocq had the first sony watermarked 0001 and shot entirely the film on it while star wars prequels still used 35mm stock).
There's also performance capture. You may not think much of Jar Jar binks but the same company a few years later made Davy Jones which is still top noch when transferring the actor performance to a 3D creature. Nowadays it's almost common to see Smaug, benjamin buttons and such characters brought on screen.

i think word of mouth killed this movie.

I think exactly the same thing.
Especially when you market this film as an horror film with Alien while it's more of a sort of "intellectual sci fi attempt" very much in the prometheus line. The R-rated is really unnecessary and just for the fan service to have a bit of blood here and there but it never truly manage to create the tension and scare because too much is shown and yet what's actually interesting about the film is kept hidden and has nothing to do with the scare factor.
I already thought that Prometheus should have revolved around David and not Shaw and Covenant just showed me how right I am IMO, the film should be centered around him, not some unknown protagonist and others meat bag which are barely important for the great arch Ridley's attempting to build.

[Huggs]

"They should not have done the prequels, especially given the change in tone (towards myth, etc.). The franchise has essentially been about aliens vs. humans, and should have stayed that way. The writers, etc., kept imagining turning the background story into something like 2001, and it's not working."

I couldn't have said it better. I preferred the questions in Alien to remain a mystery, it made everything much more creepy. Answers are good, and sometimes necessary, but the questions posed in Prometheus were just kind of boring. The novel for covenant was a fun enough read, but it definitely made up my mind to wait for home-vid release of the movie. I do believe there are some franchises where following the original formula is the best way to go. I personally love the Alien franchise for it's simplicity, aliens hunting people on a spaceship or abandoned outpost. You know you're going to have some good monster action and it's just a fun ol' time. Not every series has to be some deep philosophical Christopher Nolan fest.

I'll just say that the covenant novel actually did make Prometheus seem better. And I'm afraid as long as they're doing prequels here, there's going to be a lot of that. The next film will make the previous one look better, but that just means a steady decline in quality. If covenant doesn't put the franchise in hypersleep for another 20 years, Fox seriously needs to consider taking the franchise back to its roots. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I watched the avp movies and resurrection again 3 days ago, and at least they gave me what I was looking for, predators and aliens. I actually found them quite fun. Wow, never thought I'd say that.

[fiveways]

I f**kin wish it was like 2001 mate

A horror-action franchise? Why?

because a horror franchise that goes in a 2001 direction actually seems kinda unique and interesting.  Not all of us like the action part of alien.  Alien is more horror suspense and way less action.  Everything is based on tension not dudes with guns.

[marrerom]

Changing the release date f

They never should have changed the release date from August to May. Making this film compete with the likes of Guardians 2 and Pirates 5 was a colossal error...Any info out there as to why the studio felt the need to move up the release date?

[john wick]

My assumption would be fox will halt the already in development sequel at least move back the planned shooting date.

They will wait to see how alien covenant does on blu ray to gather how much interest is left.

The final decision probably be made after the predator released next year. I think both franchises are cooked. The predator is going to underperform domestically. August release date this isn't another summer comic book movie that the whole family can enjoy. These franchises have both been tainted by two avp movies, and mediocre sequels.

Prometheus was poor and alien covenant was abit above average 6/10 range.

[KingXD]

Maybe should have kept the original release date of August. Dunno why Fox decided to move it to May so it can compete against heavy hitters like Pirates 5 and Guardians Vol 2.

[Huggs]

Perhaps what the franchise needed after the deep thinking Prometheus was something more akin to Aliens. Maybe if Fox would've brought Cameron back to do a film like Gibson's Alien 3, they could've marketed it as a summer action blockbuster with horror elements. That would attract the younger crowd, and the fact that it was Cameron (the titanic and Avatar guy) would attract everyone else. At least it would've stood a better chance at making money and keeping the franchise alive.