Alien: Covenant Box Office Performance

[Creditor]

It was always a bad idea to make it go a week after Guardians if the Galaxy 2. Pirates 5 and Baywatch will come out soon and make a dent in Covenant box office too.

Just got back from seeing it.  "Alien" fan here since I saw the first on TV as a twelve year old child in 1982.  This was UTTER SHIT - woeful, waste of time piece of shit.  I was bored, annoyed and left ANGRY.  Alien is DEAD people - maybe it's artistic irony it was killed by its creator. 

*snip. I understand folk aren't all going to be angry but you can refrain from the comments wishing death on people. Thanks. Hicks.

Good luck!  I'm one of THE BIGGEST Alien fans you'll ever find and it's now my MISSION to get people to NOT waste their money on this f**king piece of moronic shit.

[900SL]

Lose - lose.

If It does well at the box office, then expect more of the same.. and by that I mean laughable plot, script, and lack of coherence and respect.  Prom and AC could have been great. Instead we have portentious popcorn masquerading as philosophy.   

If it breaks even or less, then expect a reboot of Aliens.

I'm not going to spend my money on it.

[Robopadna]

Well considering it's 110 million budget.  They would need roughly 220 million to break even.  I think they would be happy with a Prometheus like worldwide haul, but looks like it's going to be a bit lower.  Still I think anything in the $320 to $350 million mark world wide would be considered a success.  Alien has never been a gigantic box office draw.  As long as the studio makes money on it I think they will continue to make Alien movies.  Unless they have a blowout box office success, I think they'll continue to keep the budget in that 110 million dollar range.

It needs about 400-450 to break even.

[Beardomorph]

It needs about 400-450 to break even.

That's not out of reach.

The amount of money they spent on marketing seems to be huge. In London I keep seeing adverts for it everywhere in town.

[gantarat]

Well considering it's 110 million budget.  They would need roughly 220 million to break even.  I think they would be happy with a Prometheus like worldwide haul, but looks like it's going to be a bit lower.  Still I think anything in the $320 to $350 million mark world wide would be considered a success.  Alien has never been a gigantic box office draw.  As long as the studio makes money on it I think they will continue to make Alien movies.  Unless they have a blowout box office success, I think they'll continue to keep the budget in that 110 million dollar range.

It needs about 400-450 to break even.

Woow that too much .

Prometheus total gross is $403,354,469   
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=prometheus.htm

[Kane's other son]

No, it does not need "about 400-450 to break even". If that were the case, Prometheus would be a money-loser and we'd never get Covenant.

Studios are businesses. They didn't agree on a sequel for the fans' sake.

[Beardomorph]

No, it does not need "about 400-450 to break even". If that were the case, Prometheus would be a money-loser and we'd never get Covenant.

That's already been discussed, but Prometheus mainly made profit on the DVD/Blu-ray sales.

It's basic maths. IF the studio makes half the money from ticket sales, and IF indeed they spent 110M on the movie plus 90/100M on marketing ( at least ), then they need to make at least 400M in ticket sales to break even. That's an oversimplification of course, but it gives you an idea.

[Kane's other son]

No studio greenlights a movie in 2015 hoping to earn back its investment through home video sales.
The market's pretty much dead and looks nothing like it did back in 2012.

[Beardomorph]

No studio greenlights a movie in 2015 hoping to earn back its investment through home video sales.
The market's pretty much dead and looks nothing like it did back in 2012.

Which is why the movie budget is lower than Prometheus, the marketing budget higher than Prometheus with a massive focus on TV spots and the use of Alien Day, and it's also why they insisted on having the Alien back in this movie, why they put the word Alien in the title and why so much of the marketing has focused on the creature instead of David, despite what the movie is about. In short, they're doing everything they can to get people to see it in the theatres to make their money back, because they know that this time around they won't make as much profit on the home market.

[Corporal Hicks]

Just a few region specific articles -

http://www.screendaily.com/news/uk-box-office-alien-covenant-scares-off-guardians-2/5117824.article?blocktitle=LATEST-FILM-NEWS&contentID=40562
http://movieplayer.it/news/box-office-italia-alien-covenant-debutta-in-prima-posizione_50748/

[Robopadna]

No, it does not need "about 400-450 to break even". If that were the case, Prometheus would be a money-loser and we'd never get Covenant.

Studios are businesses. They didn't agree on a sequel for the fans' sake.

It does.

Prometheus was a box office money loser by a fairly decent amount.  That is partially why this was given a lower absolute budget even five years later, even though it almost always goes the other way due to inflation alone.

There are other ways a movie can make money and through those avenues Prometheus nearly broke even.  The studio wanted a new franchise and they were willing to take an initial loss of some degree to establish it.  If Prometheus had made money, they would not have forced this massive shift to Aliens in it and given it a lower budget.  Prometheus lost money.

Covenant needs about 400-450 to break even at the box office.  There are other ways for it to make money (dvd sales being a relatively large one) but the box office is king in terms of amount of money taken in and public perception.

No studio greenlights a movie in 2015 hoping to earn back its investment through home video sales.
The market's pretty much dead and looks nothing like it did back in 2012.

You are 100% dead wrong.  People buy dvds or digital media for the top movies at very high rates.  To throw out an example, TFA made nearly 200 million in dvd sales alone (non digital), last year.

Frozen made a little less than 400 million dollars in physical media sales.

If you want to only look at R rated movies, deadpool made nearly 100 million.

These are not going to save an absolutely tanking movie and I explicitly said they would not.  In Prometheus' case they definitely pushed the movie close to the breaking even point though which, in part, convinced the studio to allow this sequel (with some stipulations).  Physical and digital media sales are very powerful revenue streams.

[Feeds On Minds]

Hmm..
A sequel to a film that half it's core audience hated...I wonder why it's not doing so well..   

[Robopadna]

Hmm..
A sequel to a film that half it's core audience hated...I wonder why it's not doing so well..   

I think it's far too early to call it.

It certainly has shown a lower opening in MOST places than Prometheus.

[cucuchu]

No, it does not need "about 400-450 to break even". If that were the case, Prometheus would be a money-loser and we'd never get Covenant.

Studios are businesses. They didn't agree on a sequel for the fans' sake.

It does.

Prometheus was a box office money loser by a fairly decent amount.  That is partially why this was given a lower absolute budget even five years later, even though it almost always goes the other way due to inflation alone.

There are other ways a movie can make money and through those avenues Prometheus nearly broke even.  The studio wanted a new franchise and they were willing to take an initial loss of some degree to establish it.  If Prometheus had made money, they would not have forced this massive shift to Aliens in it and given it a lower budget.  Prometheus lost money.

Covenant needs about 400-450 to break even at the box office.  There are other ways for it to make money (dvd sales being a relatively large one) but the box office is king in terms of amount of money taken in and public perception.

No studio greenlights a movie in 2015 hoping to earn back its investment through home video sales.
The market's pretty much dead and looks nothing like it did back in 2012.

You are 100% dead wrong.  People buy dvds or digital media for the top movies at very high rates.  To throw out an example, TFA made nearly 200 million in dvd sales alone (non digital), last year.

Frozen made a little less than 400 million dollars in physical media sales.

If you want to only look at R rated movies, deadpool made nearly 100 million.

These are not going to save an absolutely tanking movie and I explicitly said they would not.  In Prometheus' case they definitely pushed the movie close to the breaking even point though which, in part, convinced the studio to allow this sequel (with some stipulations).  Physical and digital media sales are very powerful revenue streams.

Thanks for the insight and info! Do you by chance have a source or link for Prometheus numbers? I have heard so many conflicting reports about how much it took to make even...would be nice to see some hard numbers. If not, no problem, I will do some searching when I am at home.

Edit: not specific to Prometheus but I found this article helpful for explaining what it takes for a film to actually be profitable
http://www.boxofficeflops.com/articles/when-does-a-movie-break-even-at-the-box-office/

[Robopadna]

No, it does not need "about 400-450 to break even". If that were the case, Prometheus would be a money-loser and we'd never get Covenant.

Studios are businesses. They didn't agree on a sequel for the fans' sake.

It does.

Prometheus was a box office money loser by a fairly decent amount.  That is partially why this was given a lower absolute budget even five years later, even though it almost always goes the other way due to inflation alone.

There are other ways a movie can make money and through those avenues Prometheus nearly broke even.  The studio wanted a new franchise and they were willing to take an initial loss of some degree to establish it.  If Prometheus had made money, they would not have forced this massive shift to Aliens in it and given it a lower budget.  Prometheus lost money.

Covenant needs about 400-450 to break even at the box office.  There are other ways for it to make money (dvd sales being a relatively large one) but the box office is king in terms of amount of money taken in and public perception.

No studio greenlights a movie in 2015 hoping to earn back its investment through home video sales.
The market's pretty much dead and looks nothing like it did back in 2012.

You are 100% dead wrong.  People buy dvds or digital media for the top movies at very high rates.  To throw out an example, TFA made nearly 200 million in dvd sales alone (non digital), last year.

Frozen made a little less than 400 million dollars in physical media sales.

If you want to only look at R rated movies, deadpool made nearly 100 million.

These are not going to save an absolutely tanking movie and I explicitly said they would not.  In Prometheus' case they definitely pushed the movie close to the breaking even point though which, in part, convinced the studio to allow this sequel (with some stipulations).  Physical and digital media sales are very powerful revenue streams.

Thanks for the insight and info! Do you by chance have a source or link for Prometheus numbers? I have heard so many conflicting reports about how much it took to make even...would be nice to see some hard numbers. If not, no problem, I will do some searching when I am at home.

Edit: not specific to Prometheus but I found this article helpful for explaining what it takes for a film to actually be profitable
http://www.boxofficeflops.com/articles/when-does-a-movie-break-even-at-the-box-office/

Unfortunately you will never get a fully disclosed number from the studio BUT the reported budget was 130 million dollars.  That does not include advertisement and distribution which, in the case of Prometheus, was extensive.  Using some known numbers and numbers culled from Sony's leaked email scandal, it is commonly accepted that a marketing push of that type is safely in the 100-150 range.  That means the movie is sitting around 250-280 million dollar budget overall.

Here is an in depth look at deadpool:

It has a reported budget of 58 million dollars.

However, it had a print/ad budget of 120 million.  It had video costs of 48 million, residuals of 24 and other costs close to 75 million.  In total its costs were 325 million dollars of which the production was only 58.

The box office was massive, pulling in 363 domestic and 420 international.  The studio only kept 181 and 168 of that, respectively.  They also made 159 on rentals/dvds/digital sales and had about 138 million dollars in tv broadcast rights in the US and overseas.  Overall it pulled in 647 million for the studio.

When you take the difference you get 322 million in profit.