‘Alien: Covenant’ edges out ‘Guardians 2’ at box office
Alien: Covenant LOS ANGELES edged out Guardians of the Gal
axy Vol. 2 in a weekend space battle at the box office.
Ridley Scott’s latest Alien exploit opened with $36 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Guardians was close behind, collecting $35.1 million in its third week of release.
“You couldn’t get two outerspace operas that are more different in terms of point of view and execution,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore.
Alien: Covenant is a dark, Rrated scare-fest about slimy, parasitic space monsters; Guardians is a sweet, family-centered romp across the cosmos.
“Alien is sort of the dark side,” Dergarabedian says. “It’s the Rrated yin to Guardians’ PG-13rated fun yang.” Two other new releases landed in the top five. The teen romance Everything, Everything, based on Nicola Yoon’s best-selling young adult novel, debuted in third place with $12 million. The latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie, The Long Haul, claimed fifth place with $7.2 million. Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn’s R-rated comedy Snatched finished fourth in its second week of release with $7.6 million. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 provided a solid launch to the summer movie season with more than $300 million in North American ticket sales so far, Dergarabedian says, though grosses are running about 10% behind last summer’s totals.
May is following a typical pattern, he says. A big Marvel movie kicks off the month, which ends with Memorial Day tentpoles like next weekend’s R-rated Baywatch reboot starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Zac Efron, and Johnny Depp’s fifth Pirates of
the Caribbean movie, Dead Men Tell No Tales. Final figures are expected Monday.