‘Twisters’ Surprises Box Office With $80.5 Million Opening Weekend

Universal's disaster film tops the domestic start of "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire"

The post ‘Twisters’ Surprises Box Office With $80.5 Million Opening Weekend appeared first on TheWrap.

Lifted by excellent word-of-mouth, Universal’s “Twisters” is keeping the domestic box office running hot with an excellent $80.5 million opening weekend, blasting past all projections for the standalone sequel to the 90s disaster film “Twister.”

With this start, “Twisters” has earned the third highest opening of 2024 so far, just edging the $80 million opening of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” back at the end of March. It has also broken a 20-year record held by the $68 million opening of “The Day After Tomorrow” for the highest opening weekend by a disaster film before inflation adjustment.

With a $150 million budget before marketing costs, “Twisters” needs not just a strong opening weekend, but positive word-of-mouth as well. On that front, there’s good news too as the film has earned an A- on CinemaScore to go with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 77% critics and 92% audience.

With “Deadpool & Wolverine” arriving next week to make a play at the rare $200 million-plus opening weekend, “Twisters” must find its own lane as a PG-13 alternative to Marvel Studios’ first R-rated movie. All signs point to it being just that and earning a $200 million-plus domestic theatrical run.

More to come…

The post ‘Twisters’ Surprises Box Office With $80.5 Million Opening Weekend appeared first on TheWrap.