The summer box office continues to be a spectacular success, as director Lee Isaac Chung’s “Twisters” performed much better than expected in its opening weekend. The standalone sequel to the 1996 classic summer blockbuster “Twister” was expected to open in the $50 million range based on early tracking numbers. However, some analysts predicted the disaster film would open much higher. That proved true, so much so that Chung’s crowd-pleasing film earned its place in the record books with the biggest opening weekend ever for a disaster movie in the US.
Universal Pictures’ “Twisters” earned an estimated $80.5 million domestically, easily topping the charts last weekend. With that, it broke a very special record set by Roland Emmerich’s “The Day After Tomorrow,” which hit theaters 20 years ago in 2004. That film grossed $68.7 million domestically and since then, it has been the high standard for a disaster movie in North America. It took two decades, but that record was finally broken. Whether it was people who went to the cinema for nostalgia in the ’90s or younger moviegoers who were simply willing to see old-fashioned blockbusters, this film successfully cast a very wide net.
The film focuses on a former storm chaser named Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones). She is lured back into action by a friend (Anthony Ramos) to test a new tracking system. They meet up with popular social media storm chaser Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) and decide to work together to combat several massive storm systems in Oklahoma. Maura Tierney (“The Iron Claw”), Sasha Lane (“Hellboy”), David Corenswet (“Pearl”), Katie O’Brien (“The Mandalorian”), Kiernan Shipka (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”), and Paul Scheer (“The League”) also star.
Twisters was a risky legacy sequel that turned out to be a success (at least in the US)
With a reported $155 million budget, Universal and Warner Bros. (which is handling foreign distribution) were betting that audiences cared so much about the original “Twister” that it would help build buzz for this film. Reboots of once-popular IPs certainly don’t always work. Just look at what happened with “The Fall Guy” earlier this year, despite it receiving great reviews. Still, this risk paid off, thanks to the undeniable star power of Glen Powell, a great ensemble cast, and an entertaining movie that stands on its own feet regardless of one’s connection to the original film.
Well, at least, it’s doing well in North America. Internationally, the story is different. As of this writing, the film has earned just $42.7 million overseas. Granted, it still has to open in Japan and South Korea, but those markets won’t bring in enough to completely change the story here. A film this expensive needs to perform worldwide to justify the expense. To put it simply, “The Day After Tomorrow” has grossed $552.6 million globally, with $365.8 million, or more than 66% of those ticket sales, coming from foreign markets. That’s a stark contrast for “Twister” so far.
We’ll have to see how things go in the coming weeks. The original “Twister” earned $495.7 million worldwide in its time on the block, with about 51% of that money coming from international. For now, it seems unlikely that the sequel will be able to earn the same numbers. Fortunately, at the moment, things are going well enough in the U.S. to help straighten things out. If nothing else, “Twister” could go down as a film that finally broke a 20-year-old record.
“Twisters” is currently playing in theaters.
