Alien: Covenant Box Office Performance

[NickisSmart]

Don't forget Carlo Rambaldi who created hydraulics for the Alien's head.

Ah, true. Yeah, I remember he didn't quite want all the detail with the monster's mouth and jaw but Ridley insisted so Carlo just gave him what he wanted.

[bb-15]

Right?! It seems like the Alien series is in legitimate danger from getting snatched up by Disney!

Not that I can see.
The Alien franchise is owned by Fox and I can find no news where Fox is going to sell the franchise to Disney.

The only connection between Disney and the Alien franchise is with a ride at Walt Disney World (in Florida) called "The Great Movie Ride".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Movie_Ride

Disney acquired the licensing rights to "Alien" for a ride. And that's the limit of Disney's control of the franchise.

[BishopShouldGo]

Woooooooosh.

[426Buddy]

Right?! It seems like the Alien series is in legitimate danger from getting snatched up by Disney!

Not that I can see.
The Alien franchise is owned by Fox and I can find no news where Fox is going to sell the franchise to Disney.

The only connection between Disney and the Alien franchise is with a ride at Walt Disney World (in Florida) called "The Great Movie Ride".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Movie_Ride

Disney acquired the licensing rights to "Alien" for a ride. And that's the limit of Disney's control of the franchise.

That was a fun ride, i got the chance to go there when i was 9. I hope they have updated it though because it was pretty basic.

[fiveways]

- I'd just like to add a recent name who has had an influence on the prequel designs, Jon Spaihts.
Spaihts in his scripts came up with the classic Greek/Roman sculpture look of the Engineers. And that opened up the design range of the Engineer's buildings / art to include classic ancient earth motifs (giant head sculptures/statues, Renaissance style ceiling painting).   

Or did Ridley suggest all those idea and Spaiht just worked them into the script?   

I give Spaihts zero credit.  "Engineers" was a f**king awful script.  his other films have all been terrible.  passengers was a f**king nightmare.

[Scorpio]

i might have mentioned this before in another thread. .but it's been awhile and i don't think i eloborated much. .anyway a fair comparison in regards to another fox franchise. .Percy Jackson first movie cost 95 mil and earned 226 worldwide, very close to what covenant is currently at and Percy got a sequel made, in 2013 it was made at a cost of 90 mil and earned 200 mil at the box office. .bringing the franchise to a screeching halt. .so i think their is hope for a covenant sequel based on those numbers. . ?

. .so if covenant can just make it to about 240. .then i think a sequel is more than justifiable. . .

With Percy it looks like they get double their budget back.  Alien is different, though, the profit ratio needs to be 3 to 1,  based on how the previous films performed.  So Covenant needs to make another 60 mil or so (from 220 mil).

[NickisSmart]

Why is it different? Why 3 to 1?

[Scorpio]

Because since Alien 3 every Alien film (except Resurrection) made 3x their budget back.  Alien and Aliens were big earners and the franchise will never reach those heights again (?).

Now with Resurrection, we know that led to a 7 year hiatus and a reboot with the AVP films.  As of right now, Covenant is at Resurrection numbers which isn't good.

[juxtapose]

ooooh f**k. .it better be big in japan then. .but also bear in mind weavers age?. .she was always keen on another, but far as i remember she would only return if they provided her with a decent script that did not take place on earth. .end of resurrection made it look like they were heading straight here. .plus ridley and cameron had plans for alien 5 and decided to let it go the moment fox greenlit the offensive low budget crap known as avp. .which imo saved the predators from obscurity and did nothing but nearly ruin the alien franchise. .

[D. Compton Ambrose]

Because since Alien 3 every Alien film (except Resurrection) made 3x their budget back.  Alien and Aliens were big earners and the franchise will never reach those heights again (?).

Now with Resurrection, we know that led to a 7 year hiatus and a reboot with the AVP films.  As of right now, Covenant is at Resurrection numbers which isn't good.

Soft reboot and retcon incoming (2024 probably).

[Kane's other son]

With Percy it looks like they get double their budget back.  Alien is different, though, the profit ratio needs to be 3 to 1,  based on how the previous films performed.  So Covenant needs to make another 60 mil or so (from 220 mil).

The performance of previous movies in a franchise have nothing to do with how much money the most recent installment has to make in order to be profitable. the only thing determining that is return of investment. If the new movie ends up bringing in more money than it cost to make, it's by default profitable.

[SM]

Yeah.  What's this 2 to 1, 3 to 1 deal?

[Kane's other son]

It's nonsense. There's a general rule that a movie has to earn twice its production budget in order to enter the realm of profitability.
However, we lack a lot of information: We don't know the marketing budget, presales to foreign territories, licensing fees, projections for TV rights and home video sales, or the added value to the franchise as a whole by Covenant.

[remember]

Remember if your comparing this to resurrection's entire box office and using inflation, don't forget to inflate the budget, which would be around 147 million dollars, not including marketing, perhaps not the best comparison. The home market seems more vibrant these days too, people buying laser disc and VHS possible wasn't much profit back then, plus resurrection is a terrible movie.

[tleilaxu]

I suspect the marketing campaign was on the expensive side, but merch and blu-ray sales are probably going to cover for that.