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 273,372 times)

marrerom

Quote from: 900SL on May 29, 2017, 07:56:33 AM
It was shit. Gore is not a big draw. The script and plot were borderline idiotic. It wasn't failures in marketing, the whole planet has been bombarded with advance hype. Stop trying to offload the blame elsewhere.

The fault lies with the Studio, and possibly the Director.

It was shit? Personal preferences aside the majority of the reviews are positive.

The real problem was the release date. An October or August release date would have been much better as the film would have had no real competition. Instead they bumped up the release date to May...A hard R-rated horror film was never going to do well against two pg-13 family friendly blockbuster franchises (GOTG2 and Pirates 5).


T Dog

In fairness, having the most unsubtle trailers which revealed EVERYTHING probably didn't help matters. Nor did the fact that last movie had a very mixed reception.

Robopadna

Quote from: Denton Smalls on May 29, 2017, 02:45:12 PM
Quote from: Kerrod33 on May 29, 2017, 02:24:01 PM
I may sound really stupid in saying this (but I haven't been one to follow box office ratings),  but wasn't the budget for this film $97mil? And from what I have seen it has earnt in the region of $150mil, isn't that a profit? Doesn't seem like a bomb to me... and I quite enjoyed the film. If I don't leave the cinema and ask questions or talk about the film, then it's a failure in my book

It's weird, man. That does seem like a solid profit, but studios usually need a considerably high margin for their films to be considered a commercial success.

Also, in addition to the $97 mil production cost, the cost of marketing was most likely substantial, so in that regard, I'm not sure the film did much better than break even yet, if that.

We are in a strange cinematic era where the only films that seem to do well (outside animated or live action kids' movies like "Beauty and the Beast" or "Boss Baby") are monster budget comic book films that flood the market and appeal to a massively large audience demographic, or micro budget genre movies like "The Purge" franchise, "Get Out," "Don't Breathe" or "Split," which are made on such a cheap budget that even a ~$100 mil worldwide box office haul is considered successful on a $5-$20 mil budget.

Blumhouse is an example of a studio that churns these lower budget films out regularly. It makes me wonder if Alien might do better if it were made as more of an independent movie.

First, you are REALLY underestimating how well those movies did.  You said they can make a profit on 100 million WW..   they can, but they make far more than that.

Split = 280 million WW (138 domestic)
Get Out = 240 million WW (astounding 170+ domestic)
Don't Breathe = 157 million WW (90 domestic)

All of those will outpace Covenant's domestic take (where the studio keeps the majority of the money).

Quoteor micro budget genre movies

A majority of those fail (at the box office).  You only remember the ones that succeeded.

QuoteBlumhouse is an example of a studio that churns these lower budget films out regularly. It makes me wonder if Alien might do better if it were made as more of an independent movie.

Finally, it would make no difference if it isn't a good movie.  An 'indie' movie doesn't make it better by default.  If you threw Covenant on a 10 million dollar budget you would have to have an entirely different vision for the film (and it would be far more restricted).  Good luck seeing Paradise...  they can't afford it.  You can say that it would be a good thing to make it more character driven but that only works if it is well written and being 'indie' (I think you really just mean smaller budget) doesn't guarantee that.

Ingwar

It won't even reach 80 million. Sad but true.

fiveways

fiveways

#679
Quote from: marrerom on May 29, 2017, 03:37:16 PM
Quote from: 900SL on May 29, 2017, 07:56:33 AM
It was shit. Gore is not a big draw. The script and plot were borderline idiotic. It wasn't failures in marketing, the whole planet has been bombarded with advance hype. Stop trying to offload the blame elsewhere.

The fault lies with the Studio, and possibly the Director.

It was shit? Personal preferences aside the majority of the reviews are positive.

The real problem was the release date. An October or August release date would have been much better as the film would have had no real competition. Instead they bumped up the release date to May...A hard R-rated horror film was never going to do well against two pg-13 family friendly blockbuster franchises (GOTG2 and Pirates 5).

I'm going to assume they had a marketing idea in moving the date forward.  Maybe they figured they could get an extra 10m out of a May release over an October release.  Here is a listing of the top grossing October movies.  Saw III is the highest grossing "R" rated film in the month of October and it is still less than what Covenant made.  Also the second week drop off in October would have been monster.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/weekends/month/?mo=10

Here is August as comparison.  I have zero idea how it would have done that month as it is harder to read.  I'd suspect it would do District 9 kinda money in August. 

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/weekends/month/?mo=08

I'm really really incredibly cynical about online reviews.  A lot of the reviews you read are very middle of the road and very forgiving.  I think a lot of reviewers fall on the side of caution as they want to keep being invited to review viewings and fear giving a totally damning review would hurt the chances of that happening or are just overly excited to be seeing a movie before everyone else.  Their excitement often leads to less objective reviews.  Would the review be vastly different if they saw it on a Monday afternoon the weekend after it opened or would it be the same if you remove the excitement of seeing it first from the entire process?  I personally don't put a lot of faith in online critics anymore unless the review goes into great depth in explaining the pros and cons of the picture.  I will always choose objective over excitement.  Also the cup is half empty and I'm a f**king RIOT at parties.  Seriously I've never brought an entire room down by just being there....


Quote from: Ingwar on May 29, 2017, 03:57:39 PM
It won't even reach 80 million. Sad but true.

70m is going to be an uphill battle.

http://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3439533/lets-see-alien-covenant-box-office-weekend/

dam

dam

#680
Regarding box office numbers, I would say unless China brings a miracle, im talking Resident Evil: the final chapter miracle numbers, which I think that film done 97 million in one weekend? and you can thank that for the news on a reboot to that franchise, point is , China's audience better want to be interested in this Alien film because the studio gambled on this and Ridley believed in this, and right now at 161 million worldwide, DAM, I don't see another alien film happening ever again, yes it went number one first weekend but it can't keep people interested. 

Robopadna

By saying saw 3 is the highest grossing r rated movie you mean highest grossing released in October?  I don't know if that's true but I do know saw 3 is no where near the highest r rated movie.

fiveways

fiveways

#682
Quote from: Robopadna on May 29, 2017, 04:14:47 PM
By saying saw 3 is the highest grossing r rated movie you mean highest grossing released in October?  I don't know if that's true but I do know saw 3 is no where near the highest r rated movie.

Sorry in October.  I'll edit it for clarity.

EDIT:  I'm wrong.  I thought paranormal activity 3 was PG-13 (It was in Canada).  I had zero idea it was R in the USA.  I can only guess it was the 16 uses of the word "f**k" as I don't remember that film being really that violent or gory.  Weird....

Gash

Quote from: T Dog on May 29, 2017, 03:44:32 PM
In fairness, having the most unsubtle trailers which revealed EVERYTHING probably didn't help matters. Nor did the fact that last movie had a very mixed reception.

Fox should have learned their lesson from Prometheus re spoiling everything with the trailers - however, unfortunately the Prometheus trailers were hugely successful - nobody viewing them realised the extent of how spoiler heavy they were, so Fox did the same again.

Fortunately for me, once bitten twice shy and I learned my lesson. I didn't view any trailers for Covenant except the prologues. But I'm pretty sure that this time around there was no benefit in the trailers being so spoilery.

NickisSmart

Gash, a lot of content in the ad campaigns aren't in the film (like The Crossing footage or The Last Supper or the Walter commercial).

Gash

Quote from: NickisSmart on May 29, 2017, 04:50:45 PM
Gash, a lot of content in the ad campaigns aren't in the film (like The Crossing footage or The Last Supper or the Walter commercial).

Yes, I saw The Crossing prologue. Saw the Walter commercial after I saw the film. Not watched The Last Supper, wasn't sure if it would be spoilery so I avoided it. Will go watch it now.

Samhain13



Is it out of the theaters already?

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯

Coming to a Fox boardroom near you today:

Alien: Box Office Situation (3D)

Run, Hide, Call in sick for the day.

Robopadna

Quote from: Samhain13 on May 29, 2017, 05:16:09 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0rM4XOMW8I

Is it out of the theaters already?

Not sure what you mean. It had a horrific drop off but it is very clearly still in theatres.

Samhain13

Quote from: Robopadna on May 29, 2017, 05:44:26 PM
Quote from: Samhain13 on May 29, 2017, 05:16:09 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0rM4XOMW8I

Is it out of the theaters already?

Not sure what you mean. It had a horrific drop off but it is very clearly still in theatres.

I'm asking if is it out of the theaters on where others live. Its out of the theater I saw in my country.

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