‘Alien: Romulus’ leads worldwide box office in static late-summer session; ‘Afraid’ disappoints

Worldwide box office August 30 - September 1

Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates.

‘Alien: Romulus’ tops global box office for third week in a row

Even by the standards of late summer, a becalmed worldwide box office continues to show significant stasis, with the top four titles at the weekend – Alien: Romulus, Deadpool & Wolverine, It Ends With Us and Despicable Me 4 – all in the same positions as the previous session, and also the one before.

Alien: Romulus tops Comscore’s worldwide box office chart for the third week in a row, grossing an estimated $31.9m, and with a total now at $283.4m. The Alien sequel has topped the global box office with the lowest total for a chart-topping film since late April, which was the weekend before the summer blockbuster season kicked off with The Fall Guy. On that occasion, a dearth of major US titles saw South Korean film The Roundup: Punishment top the worldwide chart with a $24.4m total.

The lack of powerful new releases both this weekend and last weekend means that Alien: Romulus has achieved three weeks at the top of the global chart despite not yet crossing $300m in total worldwide box office.

So far this year, 21 different titles have topped the worldwide box office for at least one weekend session, of which only six films – Dune: Part Two, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, Deadpool & Wolverine and Alien: Romulus – have managed more than a single week at the top spot. Of these six films, Alien: Romulus has achieved by far the lowest box office total. The rest have grossed at least $500m, and the year’s top film, Inside Out 2, is now at $1.666bn.

Disney has now topped the global box office chart for the last six weeks in a row: for three weeks with Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine and then three weeks with 20^th Century Studios’ Alien: Romulus.

The $283.4m worldwide total for Alien: Romulus puts the film in second place for the franchise (unadjusted for inflation), behind only Prometheus. The most recent Alien film, 2017’s Alien: Covenant, reached $240.9m. Alien: Romulus has also overtaken what was previously 2024’s top horror film, A Quiet Place: Day One ($261.5m).

‘Inside Out 2’ returns to global top five

The only new entry at the weekend among the top five films globally – and it’s a re-entry – is Inside Out 2, moving up from sixth place a week ago, and seventh place the week before. Achieving $1.666bn so far, Inside Out 2 has now been inside the worldwide top 10 chart for 11 weeks in a row – a rare feat of longevity.

The weekend saw Inside Out 2 move above 2019’s The Lion King ($1.663bn) to become the ninth-biggest film of all time at the worldwide box office, and the film only needs a few more million to pass eighth-placed Jurassic World ($1.672bn). For context, Barbie, considered a phenomenal smash a year ago, reached $1.446bn, and ranks 15^th at the all-time worldwide box office.

Inside Out 2 has reached its lofty box office total despite a fairly modest ($47.2m) contribution from China. In recent months and years, the China market has been making much more limited contributions to the success of US blockbusters – and this year rare exceptions have been Alien: Romulus ($92.7m from China – almost a third of the film’s global total) and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($132.2m).

‘Afraid’ falls short with $6m total

For the latest weekend, Comscore provided only a top five worldwide box office chart (see above), instead of the customary top 10. Had the fuller chart been available, a new entry would have likely been Columbia Pictures’ Blumhouse thriller Afraid (styled by the studio as AfrAId, or AFRAID, to emphasise the AI-gone rogue storyline).

Afraid landed in ninth place at the North America box office with an estimated $3.7m for the weekend period, and $4.48m including today’s Labor Day holiday (September 2). For international, Sony’s estimate is $2.3m from 19 select markets, giving the film an estimated $6.0m opening number.

Afraid was beaten at the North American box office by fellow new entrant, Reagan: a biopic of the actor turned US president starring Dennis Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller and Jon Voight. Reagan grossed an estimated $7.4m at the weekend and $9.2m including Labor Day for distributor ShowBiz Direct – achieving fourth place at the North American box office. Sean McNamara (faith-based film On A Wing And A Prayer) directs.

‘Despicable Me 4’ pushes past $900m

Slow and steady wins the race – that could be the motto for Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 4, which first appeared in the worldwide box office chart in late June, having then launched in four early international markets. Two weeks later, the Gru adventure had reached North America and widened to 73 international territories, topping the box office for the first week of July, and with a total at that point of $229.5m.

Subsequently, Despicable Me 4 has proved a steady box office earner, pulling in family audiences over the summer holiday period. Total after 12 weeks of play globally is $913.8m – ranking the film third for the year to date, after Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine.

The weekend saw Despicable Me 4 drop just 26% from the previous session in international markets (boosted by a 24% rise in UK/Ireland, which saw the National Cinema Day price promotion on Saturday), and fell 4% in North America (not including Labor Day).

Despicable Me 4 long ago overtook the worldwide box office total of the first Despicable Me film ($544.2m, 2010), and is steadily moving towards matching Despicable Me 2 ($970.8m, 2013). Despicable Me 3 ($1.035bn, 2017) will likely prove beyond its grasp, but this latest film should overtake 2022’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru ($940.2m). Franchise topper remains 2015’s Minions ($1.159bn).

• ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ crossing $600m at North American box office as Labor Day rounds out bounceback summer