Alexandria, VA – Summer sizzled but not right away at the box office. Memorial Day drops were not flops but not boffo or socko enough to put bodies into theater seats. Come June, the highly anticipated first installment of Kevin Costner’s Horizon took a Kevin’s Gate pitfall pivot to screening on Max, and the Part 2 August drop was delayed indefinitely after box-office sales were lackluster, despite an 11-minute standing ovation at Cannes.
The mouse that roared rode to the rescue somewhat higher in the saddle. Disney’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes made $397 million. Inside Out 2 offered a summer slump reprieve after the Pixar pic garnered $1.597 billion. Disney is not only having a banner year but will likely close out 2024 stronger than ever with popular sequel draws from Moana 2 dropping November 27 and Mufasa: The Lion King set to open on December 20.
Even the highly anticipated prequel to George Miller’s post-apocalyptic 2015 Mad Max remix masterpiece, Furiosa, starring Aussie überman Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy, proved to be not as furiously fortunate. It grossed only $50 million domestically. Then along comes the beleaguered anti-hero Wolverine personified by another Down Under hunk, Hugh Jackman. He hitches his claws to the perpetually pithy Deadpool aka Wade Wilson, played by a master of deadpan mirth (rivaled only by the incomparable Bill Murray), the Canadian cut-up Ryan Reynolds.
Deadpool and Wolverine released by Marvel Studios to theaters on July 26 has since grossed over a billion dollars, more than last year’s Best Picture Oppenheimer and blockbuster Barbie. The flick made cinematic history as the record-breaking highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. The Disney/20th Century property superseded the $1.14 billion record set by Joker in 2019.
The multiverse may not need saving encore une fois, but the Alien universe is once more imperiled by its déjà-oh-no-not-you-again ravenously internecine, entomologicalesque xenomorphic mas-macho machine. Alien: Romulus ripped into Marvel’s three weeks of supreme box-office dominion, bringing in a hot $41.5 million in its debut weekend. Among the most popular, and lucrative, of the eternal sci-fi franchises along with Star Wars, Star Trek, Terminator, Jurassic Park, Hunger Games, and the granddaddy of them all, Planet of the Apes, Alien is the most terrifyingly terrific.
It all began in 1979 with a simple but effective branding: “In space no one can hear you scream.” There’s been an incalculable amount of screaming on screen and in theater seating over 45 years. Ironically that’s nearly the amount of time that Ripley was drifting in space before her shuttle was picked up by a salvage crew in the opening of James Cameron’s Aliens.
There are now seven official Alien films in the franchise, with two Alien vs. Predator spinoffs, which we don’t all count even if there’s a xenomorph protagonist. In the current pecking order, At Z MovieZ ranks Romulus at the top with Aliens and Ridley Scott’s space-horror masterpiece, the original Alien. Scott also directed the two eminently watchable prequels Prometheus and Covenant, and produced Romulus.
Scott sure can cast – and, of course, direct. Who doesn’t admire the feminist empowerment of Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley? And Michael Fassbender’s personification of good versus evil via David/Walter’s emerging humanity- and inhumanity – in Covenant is mesmerizing.
Alien: Romulus, directed by Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead, The Girl in the Spider’s Web, Chainsaw Massacre 2022), stands on its own amid some seriously heavyweight filmmaking.
The story returns to a time between the events of Alien and Aliens. The cast is all savvy and sexy newcomers, giving it a nostalgic feel without actually being retrospective. The music adds to that feel with references to the scores of Aliens and Prometheus. New to the franchise is Trevor Newman as the Xenomoprh replacing the special effects monsters brilliantly created by Arlington’s own – the late, great Stan Winston. Winston, winner of four Oscars, is known for his work on Aliens, Predator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Jurassic Park, Iron Man, and Edward Scissorhands. There’s a plaque honoring Winston in the auditorium of his alma mater, Washington-Lee High School, now Washington-Liberty, in Arlington.
No spoilers. But be warned: In space and a theater near you, they CAN hear you scream. It’s a whole multiverse scarier in IMAX Dolby. If you’re afraid of the dark but have a dark and dirty sense of humor, and looking for a relatively happy ending, I recommend Deadpool and Wolverine. Otherwise, if mutants and monsters aren’t your cup of fear, Michael Keaton returns as the incorrigibly undead huckster Beetlejuice in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, opening September 6. Tell him Wade Wilson sent you.
