Popverse's top stories of the day

• Dune: Prophecy creators promise to bring the "complexity" and "grand scale" of Frank Herbert's books and Denis Villeneuve's movies to TV
• Marvel's TV head says there's "absolutely" a future for Jon Bernthal's Punisher after his Daredevil: Born Again appearance
• Meet the Grim Reaper of The Walking Dead TV show cast, and what goes into killing someone off in the show

In space, no-one can hear you. But, thankfully, movie theaters have both audio and video, which might explain why Alien: Romulus massively outperformed expectations in its opening weekend, pushing Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine out of the top spot at the box office for the first time since the latter’s release.

Bringing in $41.5 million at the U.S. box office in its opening weekend, Romulus represented roughly 27% of all movie attendance for the weekend according to estimates. It immediately became the second-biggest opening in the 45-year history of the Alien franchise behind 2012’s prequel Prometheus (which saw director Ridley Scott return to the property), which opened to $51 million. The $41.5 million number was notably higher than box office projections for the movie’s opening, which had topped out in the high $20 million range prior to the movie’s opening.

The same was true internationally, where the movie took in an additional $66.7 million, again higher than expected. The global haul for the movie’s opening weekend was $108.2 million, which is particularly remarkable given that it means that Romulus has already earned back its production budget, which has been estimated at $80 million. The movie, originally intended to be a streaming-only release a la 2022’s Prey entry into the Predator franchise, was upgraded to a theatrical release at the start of production — a smart move, given what’s happened since, obviously.

Notably, that $80 million budget means that Romulus isn’t just the second biggest opener in Alien franchise history; it’s also the cheapest movie in almost four decades of Alien franchise history when budgets are adjusted for inflation; only 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens cost less money to make in real terms. (Alien 3 cost somewhere in the region of $50 million in 1992, which translates into more than $110 million when adjusted.) Clearly, there’s something to be said for taking the series back to its (relatively) cheap roots.

The success of Alien: Romulus definitely suggests that the Alien franchise is back as a theatrical force, but its next outing is going to be on the small screen: Noah Hawley (FX’s Fargo) is expected to debut the much-anticipated Alien: Earth on Hulu and FX in 2025.

If you love aliens bursting out of chests and hugging your face, then we have all you could want from  Popverse's Alien watch order, details on where Romulus fits into the Alien timeline, and all you need to know  on the upcoming Aliens TV show with Timothy Oliphant.