People who think Covenant is a massive failure to end a franchise and that it was Ridley Scott's fault are thinking very narrowly about how the film business works for franchises like these.
First, Fox made the mistake themselves, to release the film in the states the weekend before Memorial Day. It opened at number one a weekend before and then lost all kinds of $ - NOT BECAUSE IT WASN'T WELL RECEIVED, that's just what YOU WANT to think, because at that point it was very well received - but because PG13 films dominate Memorial Day weekend. The Studios make all of their money in the first few weeks of a films release and then the rest is really the money the theatres make. Fox knows all of that. Its' their job and they f**ked that up by moving up the release date.
Second, a franchise film like this is meant, from the studio's perspective, to prop up an already dominant franchise. In this case, unlike PROMETHEUS, which - again CONTRARY TO WHAT PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO THINK - propped up the franchise VERY well, and resulted in growth of the expanded universe, ALIEN:COVENANT did not PROP up interest in the franchise the way they would have liked. Also their fault for hamfisting in the xeno into a film that had lots of great new creatures to work with.
Still, all of this does not mean the film failed. It just failed to prop the franchise up the way, they'd hoped.
It will likely still make loads of profit on Home Formats and I guarantee everyone hemming and hawing now will end up appreciating it more, over time. SMH.
250mil dollars from an R-RATED film, is more than the most profitable R-Rated films, ever make. They will just attempt to make them for cheaper, or try to get Ripley back and 'go big.'
Honestly, the big mistake FOX made, whoever's decision it was, was to hamfist the Aliens-crap into the Prometheus sequel, when they had a great, great idea from the get-go to make Prometheus 2 AND Blomkamp's Alien at once. That only complicated COVENANT in a very difficult way, when it concerns moving forward now.
The reason for the re-evaluation is because they are worried that the next film will make less and need x to produce, which will further erode interest and value. So they are looking for the cracker jack prize next. What is it?
I still think the way out is through. But one ever realizes that no matter how much it's proven time and again.
Something like this is what Fox STILL needs to do. The solution is to go forward on all lose ends. Don't make 3 prequel or Blomkamp's Alien 3.2
Make 1 more cheap PROMETHEUS-story prequel (without the Alien if necessary), and then have Ripley 8 (while downplaying her '8-ness') encounter David on a W-Y research lab in space. Then make a final film where she or some pass-the-torch character go to that planet where David made aliens and wipe it out. The End.
The key word though is: SIMPLIFY. And can you do that with the ingredients on the table now? Well, a good writer can certainly do that but, will FOX let them?
From that perspective, Isolation is another obvious direction but unless it has an equally as simple throroughfare it also potentially will just make more of a mess.
