‘Alien: Romulus’ bites off $41.5 million to top box office charts

“ Alien: Romulus,” the latest installment in the 45-year-old franchise, opened in first place at the North American box office. 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. “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. “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.