‘Alien: Romulus’ Bites off $41.5 Million to Top Box Office Charts 

English actor Archie Renaux, US actor Cailee Spaeny, English actor Spike Fearn and Uruguayan director Fede Álvarez pose on the red carpet upon arrival to attend the UK gala event for "Alien: Romulus" at Cineworld in Leicester square, central London on August 14, 2024. (AFP)
English actor Archie Renaux, US actor Cailee Spaeny, English actor Spike Fearn and Uruguayan director Fede Álvarez pose on the red carpet upon arrival to attend the UK gala event for "Alien: Romulus" at Cineworld in Leicester square, central London on August 14, 2024. (AFP)
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‘Alien: Romulus’ Bites off $41.5 Million to Top Box Office Charts 

English actor Archie Renaux, US actor Cailee Spaeny, English actor Spike Fearn and Uruguayan director Fede Álvarez pose on the red carpet upon arrival to attend the UK gala event for "Alien: Romulus" at Cineworld in Leicester square, central London on August 14, 2024. (AFP)
English actor Archie Renaux, US actor Cailee Spaeny, English actor Spike Fearn and Uruguayan director Fede Álvarez pose on the red carpet upon arrival to attend the UK gala event for "Alien: Romulus" at Cineworld in Leicester square, central London on August 14, 2024. (AFP)

“Alien: Romulus,” the latest installment in the 45-year-old franchise, opened in first place at the North American box office. The 20th Century Studios release earned an estimated $41.5 million in its first weekend, where it was playing in 3,885 locations in the US and Canada.

Including $66.7 million from international showings in 49 markets, “Alien: Romulus” boasted a $108.2 million global debut. The Walt Disney Co., which owns 20th Century Studios, claimed the top two spots on the charts, with Marvel’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” now in its fourth weekend, taking second place with $29 million. The company has been responsible for an estimated 42% of the industry’s summer box office haul, including hits “Inside Out 2” and “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”

August can often be slow for the movie business, or, less charitably, a dumping ground. But while 2024 has lagged overall for the movie business, a string of recent hits including “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “It Ends With Us” helped build a momentum that put this late August weekend over 30% ahead of the same weekend last year. It’s also up over 10% from August 2019.

“The summer started off pretty gloomy, but it’s winding up really strong,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “We thought we were going to coast through August, but now we’re powering through August towards a much better overall summer number than we expected for the box office.”

Fede Álvarez directed “Alien: Romulus,” set around the time of “Alien” and “Aliens,” and recruited a cast of up-and-coming 20-somethings to lead the cast including Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson and Isabela Merced. The sci-fi film leans into Álvarez’s propensity for all things horror, as he is known for “Evil Dead” and “Don’t Breathe,” and embraces the franchise’s horror roots.

Reviews have been a little mixed, but mostly positive, with an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences gave it a B+ CinemaScore.

The romantic drama “It Ends With Us” landed in third place with $24 million, down just 52% from its triumphant opening. The Sony movie starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, who also directed, has made $97.8 million to date. It cost only $25 million to produce.

The film was adapted from the bestselling Colleen Hoover novel of the same name that follows Lively as Lily Bloom, a woman at a crossroads when a past love upends her current relationship with Baldoni’s Ryle Kincaid.

Rumors of behind-the-scenes drama on the film also continues to dominate social media discourse and tabloid headlines — but “Don’t Worry Darling” also taught us that gossip and chatter don’t always translate to box office returns.

“Twisters” placed fourth in its fifth weekend with $9.8 million from 3,483 theaters. The Universal release has made over $238.4 million domestically.

Rounding out the top five was a re-release: “Coraline,” which Fathom Events put on over 1,500 screens for its 15th anniversary where it made $11.3 million in four days and $8.6 million from Friday through Sunday. The stop-motion animated film was an adaptation of a Neil Gaiman novella, written and directed by Henry Selick and marked the first-ever release for Laika. It’ll be in theaters until Aug. 22.

“Borderlands,” the video game adaptation starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart and Jamie Lee Curtis, brought in $2.4 million in its second weekend bringing its total box office earnings to $13.5 million compared to its reported $120 million budget.



Lily Collins Has Found ‘Emily 2.0’ in Paris 

This image released by Netflix shows Lily Collins in a scene from "Emily in Paris." (Stephanie Branchu/Netflix via AP)
This image released by Netflix shows Lily Collins in a scene from "Emily in Paris." (Stephanie Branchu/Netflix via AP)
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Lily Collins Has Found ‘Emily 2.0’ in Paris 

This image released by Netflix shows Lily Collins in a scene from "Emily in Paris." (Stephanie Branchu/Netflix via AP)
This image released by Netflix shows Lily Collins in a scene from "Emily in Paris." (Stephanie Branchu/Netflix via AP)

The new season of “Emily in Paris” will have many of the same elements as the first three: daring fashion, flirty romance and workplace drama. One thing that has changed? The lead actor’s confidence.

Lily Collins, who plays Emily Cooper, said her life has mirrored her character’s growth since the series premiered in 2020.

“Walking onto set season four, I was a different person than walking onto set season one,” Collins said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I’m a more well-rounded and understanding human in this space now because of the show.”

In addition to starring in the series, Collins produces it. The first season marked her first producing gig, and she’s taken on several other projects since.

“With the growth of Emily, there’s come a real growth in myself within my role as an actor, but also as a producer,” she said. “Being so collaborative with the writers and Darren (Star, series creator) and the other producers on this and having a voice on the show has really given me the confidence with other projects out there to do the same or want the same.”

The upcoming fourth season follows Emily untangling a messy love triangle, but she’s in a more stable place professionally than when we first saw her struggling to fit in at her new job in a new country. Even her French has improved as the series went on. Collins said some of her character’s self-assurance has rubbed off on her.

“I’ve grown more confident as Emily, but also with Lily. I’m asking deeper questions about the entire project, more so than I would’ve season one,” she said. “They’re not just about aesthetics anymore, it’s about the core values of the show and how to change things and how to bring new ideas to the table.”

Some of those new ideas include adapting Emily’s headline-making wardrobe with each season, a process that Collins said required two eight-hour fittings. She said they broke their own record by securing 82 looks for the fourth season.

The costuming, by designer Marylin Fitoussi, is a crucial part of the story, showing Emily’s evolution from an expat sporting looks emblazoned with the Eiffel Tower to outfits more like that of an authentic Parisian woman. But the costuming is also a crucial part of Collins’ process of stepping back into Emily’s shoes — both literally and figuratively.

“It’s the best way for me to start to feel like Emily again, but Emily 2.0,” Collins said. “We really do tell a story with clothing in this.”

Collins said at Wednesday’s premiere that the depth of Emily’s character has been a rewarding part of the process for her, especially in seeing how fans connect with Emily or are inspired by her.

“It means the world,” Collins said. “I love playing a woman who’s unapologetically herself and loves to work, and that’s a positive thing, and that she’s still struggling to find a work-life balance because I think that you’re always trying to find what works for you. So not having it together all the time is actually an OK thing, and I love playing a character that celebrates that.”

The fourth season of the show, which premieres its first half on Thursday, has been hotly anticipated among its growing fanbase since the third season was released two years ago. Netflix has yet to renew the series for a fifth season but Star, known for “Sex and the City” and “Beverly Hills, 90210,” said he thinks the audience and popularity are only growing with time.

“It’s not like it was a product of the pandemic and people not being able to travel so they liked to watch Paris on the screen. They can travel now and the show’s increased in popularity and, in fact, it encourages people to travel, which was my biggest dream of the show,” he said.

Even with his belief in the series, Star said it’s always “gratifying” when audiences respond well to the final product. As a veteran in the television world, Star knows audiences’ reception and viewership can be unpredictable.

“You just can never, ever know how the audience is going to respond and what the outcome’s going to be, so I just really get mostly attached to the process and feeling happy about the season,” he said. “I’m really happy about this season, I hope the audience loves it.”