Alien: Covenant Box Office Performance

Started by John73, May 14, 2017, 05:51:54 PM

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Alien: Covenant Box Office Performance (Read 273,305 times)

Nostromo

If I'm too offensive can just delete me. Please don't lol.

Protozoid

Quote from: tleilaxu on Jun 30, 2017, 10:10:52 PM
Quote from: Protozoid on Jun 30, 2017, 08:41:50 PM
Quote from: tleilaxu on Jun 30, 2017, 07:59:44 PM
Quote from: Protozoid on Jun 30, 2017, 07:25:10 PM
Quote from: PRI. HUDSON on Jun 30, 2017, 03:54:45 AM
Quote from: LCpl. D. Grant on Jun 30, 2017, 12:03:57 AM
Covenant wasted so much money and as I predicted performed mediocrely at best. What a horrible showing. (Not withstanding all of the scenes cut from in China).

Idiot alert


Not an idiot. If you look a the old box office prediction thread, about ninety percent of the forum expected this movie to perform significantly better than it did. This is a poor showing, worse than even the lowest predictions. This is one of Fox's biggest franchises, and they probably lost money on it. They crashed one of their flagship franchises into the ground. For a post-Prometheus, post-Martian, Scott-directed Alien movie to perform worse than AvP is an embarrassment for everyone involved. They can spin it all they want, but the industry will look on this as a failure and I'm sure the stockholders will question the wisdom of making more of these. Calling people an idiot won't make Covenant a better, more successful movie.
It didn't perform worse than AvP in total gross, but it did perform badly. Even when I sat down in the theater, at the earliest possible showing in my country, and saw that the theater was perhaps only 70% full, I just had the feeling it wouldn't do too well.
Even barring the negative social media campaigns and leaked spoilers, it just doesn't seem there was much hype for another Alien movie.
Hope they keep all of this in mind for the next one. Just removing the "Alien" in Alien: Awakening might make a huge difference for nowadays twitter bots.
That's true, it did make more money than AvP. But AvP had a bigger opening weekend and made back almost triple its budget. Covenant will not be able to do that.

At least one pundit believes the Alien label was a liability. I think they should have made a straight Prometheus sequel called Covenant, kept Shaw, and pushed the sci-fi angle. Original sci-fi is huge right now, and Scott is the king of original sci-fi. Trying to make Alien into Star Wars was always going to end in disappointment. There is no universe where Covenant made Star Wars money. They missed their chance to create a new, vital franchise by reboarding a ship they've known was sinking for 25 years. Sci-fi has to continually push boundaries or it doesn't work. Same with horror. Looking back at how audiences, and even James Cameron, reacted to the first teaser, the public could tell immediately that Covenant wasn't going to break any new ground and had retreated from the high-concept approach of Prometheus. Nobody finds a total lack of confidence appealing. To have a successful movie like Prometheus receive such a safe sequel is retreating after victory. It's so cowardly it's kind of pitiful.
The thing is, to a large extent did make an original sci-fi movie. It had new creatures, it gave a backstory for the old creature and gave a new spin on its development, it had an overarching theme of  creation, it had allegories and artistic references. The third act is mainly where we re-tread old waters, but even then, if you accept it as a build-up for the triumphant final it feels much more coherent and fitting.
However, normies are not going to pick up on this, at least not unless you tell them. The marketing campaign ended up being very misguided, focusing on the action and horror aspects instead of what the movie was actually about.
I'm talking about a "high-concept hook". Prometheus had "the search for our beginning could lead to our end." The Martian was about a stranded astronaut who uses science to survive for years on a desolate planet while Earth unites to rescue him. Those are strong hooks. Covenant lacked that. It was the same structure as Alien (distress call, exploration, infection, retreat, and a fight to the death) with no new hook. The advertising had no hook upon which to hang their campaign. It wasn't like The Matrix, Ghostbuster, or even Avatar, which all had hooks. Alien: Covenant was "the path to paradise begins in hell." That's a pretty good tagline given what they had to work with, but it wasn't a strong story hook. Science fiction is concept-driven and this one did not introduce any concepts that weren't already present in the prior films. They marketed it as a familiar formula, not as a novel one. Horror movies also need a hook, because similar scares over and over again will lose their effect. Horror fans need the unknown in order to feel the dread. Good sci-fi movies are really hard to make for this reason. It needs to be pretty fresh in order to break out. Prometheus has a very healthy following because there are lots of ideas to unpack, and it had a tremendously promising setup for an even more ambitious sequel. From a glance at the trailer, it's clear that they abandoned the setup in favor of rehashing the structure and basic elements of the older, declining Alien franchise. I think that's what did this movie in. Sci-fi fans knew at a glance that this wasn't going to match Scott's prior four science fiction masterpieces in terms of vision or freshness, and horror fans knew the scares were going to be rehashed. The marketing also wasn't very good, overall. The shower scene in the first teaser was one of the most ridiculed moments of the year.

bb-15

Quote from: Protozoid on Jun 30, 2017, 07:25:10 PM
... If you look a the old box office prediction thread, about ninety percent of the forum expected this movie to perform significantly better than it did. This is a poor showing, worse than even the lowest predictions. This is one of Fox's biggest franchises, and they probably lost money on it. They crashed one of their flagship franchises into the ground. For a post-Prometheus, post-Martian, Scott-directed Alien movie to perform worse than AvP is an embarrassment for everyone involved. They can spin it all they want, but the industry will look on this as a failure and I'm sure the stockholders will question the wisdom of making more of these. Calling people an idiot won't make Covenant a better, more successful movie.

Elijah; I'm more positive about the situation than you are.
I think that "Covenant" will make a profit after streaming and disk sales.
Also, it is possible that Fox will approve of a sequel a few years from now.

As for the story not having a strong science fiction hook, you are right that a lot of the second half of "Covenant" is a retread of "Alien".
But I can't blame the studio that much. The Alien franchise fanbase is very divided right now. Fox wanted to please all the viewer factions which in hindsight seems to be an impossible task. Some fans wanted a return of the xenomorph and a monster hunt. Naturally Fox and Ridley responded to that.

The last Star Trek movie faced a similar problem, a divided fanbase and an underperforming film.
- Sometimes a franchise needs a rest.
"Aliens" came out 7 years after "Alien" with new filmmakers.
The same kind of thing could happen with a "Covenant" sequel.

;)

426Buddy

Quote from: Nostromo on Jun 30, 2017, 10:53:59 PM
If I'm too offensive can just delete me. Please don't lol.

Please do.

gantarat

How about Samuel L. Jackson for next movie ?

tleilaxu

How about Idris Elba as the engineer emperor  :o

PRI. HUDSON

Quote from: LCpl. D. Grant on Jun 30, 2017, 12:03:57 AM
Covenant wasted so much money and as I predicted performed mediocrely at best. What a horrible showing. (Not withstanding all of the scenes cut from in China).

Wasted SO much money...yet was made for like, 30 mill less than Prometheus.

Don't inbox me again, loser.

darkvegett0

I'm also surprised how awful A:C did,but after watching it...it was a terrible movie. And IMHO if it had prom 2 name it would have done worse. scott can't do this on his own he's going to need a better crew to help him....its a freaking train wreck watching these movies...



Evanus

Quote from: darkvegett0 on Jul 02, 2017, 01:31:46 PM
I'm also surprised how awful A:C did,but after watching it...it was a terrible movie. And IMHO if it had prom 2 name it would have done worse. scott can't do this on his own he's going to need a better crew to help him....its a freaking train wreck watching these movies...
You're entitled to your own opinion, but let's not exaggerate here. The film is problematic in a lot of ways, sure, but definitely not terrible.


Nukiemorph

From that article:
"After four decades and seven films..."

Good job, author.

fiveways

Quote from: Evanus on Jul 02, 2017, 04:04:01 PM
Quote from: darkvegett0 on Jul 02, 2017, 01:31:46 PM
I'm also surprised how awful A:C did,but after watching it...it was a terrible movie. And IMHO if it had prom 2 name it would have done worse. scott can't do this on his own he's going to need a better crew to help him....its a freaking train wreck watching these movies...
You're entitled to your own opinion, but let's not exaggerate here. The film is problematic in a lot of ways, sure, but definitely not terrible.

some of us think it was just terrible and pointless.  I hated every moment of it.  Even Ridley Scott's direction couldn't make up for how much I disliked the film.  I put in on the same level as Alien:R. 

A blanket response to a pile of people suggesting additional A-list actors.  The next movie is probably going to get a budget reduction.  Ridley Scott makes 10m a film.  Fassbender has a big paycheck as well.  You will be lucky to get those 2 in the if it takes the sort of budget cut I think it is gonna take.  Yeah Scott could take a massive pay cut, he could not direct and just take his producers check (which is a separate paycheck).  I've joked they could write out Fassbender to save money there but it would piss off too many people (I'm personally not interested in David's story at all so I'd be ok with it).  But yeah, they isn't going to be 2 a-list actors facing off against each other in the next film.  Scott's grand War of the Worlds idea is going to be way scaled back. 

Ingwar

45 millions in China, worldwide 231 so far. Only Japan left so it's very likely that Covenant will reach 250 in total.


PRI. HUDSON

Quote from: Ingwar on Jul 02, 2017, 09:59:04 PM
45 millions in China, worldwide 231 so far. Only Japan left so it's very likely that Covenant will reach 250 in total.

Prometheus took in 20 million there. AC brat Prometheus in China so a repeat in Japan is likely.

windebieste

Japan will at least pull $20m at the box office.  At the very least.  'ALIEN' stuff is crazy popular in Japan.  After closing its world wide run, 'ALIEN Covenant will have taken in around $260m. 

Not bad, for a prequel.  :P

-Windebieste.

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