Quote from: Choppa Dutchy on Jan 15, 2019, 11:58:21 AM
Just like Alien Resurrection hinted at a sequel back in 1997, 20th Century Fox took a look at box office receipts and hit the cancellation button.
When the Alien Covenant bombed, they did the same thing.
The Alien / Prometheus prequel time-line is dead, effectively.
When we eventually do see the Alien franchise return to the big screen (and I'm convinced it will happen), it won't a continuation of what Ridley Scott had planned (although I would have loved to have seen what David did next). I think they'll instead revisit the Ripley character, or, most likely, her daughter, Amanda.
Reduce the budget, take the franchise back to it's horror-house roots. That's what I think is more likely.
I understand the disappointment but AC did not bomb. It underperformed.
A box office "bomb" is when a movie can't make double the production budget at the box office. (Studios get about 1/2 of box office money partly through strange Hollywood accounting.)
So a "bomb" can't even pay for its production budget (and make up other costs through streaming, cable, disk sales).
- Examples of box office bombs; "Solo: A Star Wars Story", "Star Trek Beyond", "Green Lantern", "John Carter".
"Alien Covenant" had a Production Budget = $97 million.
Total box office = $240,891,763.
AC made 2.48 times its production budget.
That's about the same ratio as "Batman Begins" (box office 2.49 times the production budget); also not a bomb.
The difference is that in the past Fox and Warner Brothers would do sequels for underperforming films.
Disney which is now in charge of Fox films, wants blockbusters. Alien and Predator movies haven't been blockbusters for decades.