Covenant - Worldwide: $173,8 Million (Estimate)

BK1 I'll take your approach that fox and the franchise will be fine. And like Starlogger says " if they get a good script AND stick to the damn thing" it can work with a hungry "grounded" director + any decent actors. Although I think Logan Marshall nailed it , he was just given a shit character. Poor Billy crudup never had a chance with his character dialog but who turns down a paycheck. Waterston, have not seen enough of her work but I bet she could do it. A great follow-up is there it just can not be pretentious and piss off the public, yet still be innovative but simple. Maybe we are all wrong and no R movie besides "get out" is gonna win at box office. Things will work out its just that ridley might not be at the helm. BigDave I think Ripley is a goose that is beyond cooked although I'd pay to see her fighting Xenomorphs in a wheelchair

BigDave Oh no, let's please not mix Ripley with all the stupid who made them question, a movie does not need to exist just to connect the dots or to try to fix the mistakes of past installments.

Oh, Dave, no, don't do that, please, no, no, no! :D :D :D

Big Dave & Capt Torgo : Big Dave I think you are spot on with the 'Dream' element cue at the end of Aliens. I, also, thought that this is the only way for Fox to push aside Alien 3 and Resurrection and follow through with a Ripley line. Personally, I agree with Capt Torgo that 'Ripley is a goose', as the Alien franchise potential, ironically if we take into account the existence of Prometheus and AC now, points to AI (David, Ash and Bishop) and the Lovecraftian Engineers and how can we forget the Hammerpeads, the Deacon, Neomorphs and, ultimately, the Xeno. The latter, I feel, has a lot of exciting potential visually and narratively.   

BK1 Unfortunately AI is proving to be box office poison, so I don't think so

The saying goes that the Beast is cooked...well Ripley has been overcooked!

I will completely turn my back on this saga if she is brought back, yet again!!

Sorry but the one who is beyond overcooked is Ridley Scott. He got his chance to have a masterpiece and he blew it for the second time. And on top of that he is blocking the franchise from going forward in more interesting directions.

With all respect joylitt, I don't think you can just blame Ridley.

Bottom line, it's the suits at FOX who are in control. They are the ones who made him dial back on the Alien elements in Prometheus, and then add them, to the detriment of the Prometheus elements, in Covenant.

Personally, I don't know why Ridley cow-tows to them, he doesn't need the money and they are effectively ruining his reputation! 

The fanbase is splintering off in even more directions. It's time for FOX to sit up and take notice because they are at risk of losing us all! 

Alien will always be a masterpiece. Any subsequent films function a bit like - to paraphrase the artist Robert Motherwell - once you have created a seminal piece of art anything that follows is simply a process of wanting to recapture or revisit that moment again and again. Thus, all works that follow are in the shadow of said great work. If this premise is taken into account, then, any Alien themed film Scott produces and directs will be shadow pieces that cannot capture the Geist of Alien. It would be foolish to think they can.

Joylitt - you are probably right with the AI being a turn-off for mass multiplex audiences. AC, like Prometheus, then, is on an AI journey, a kind of Stephen Hawking's warning visualised, maybe? It is important for Scott to complete this vision and then we can judge these various acts leading up to Alien. Ash let Kane in and David let the pathogen do its stuff. These pesky meddling AIs. 

Fresh foreign number does not reflect the true sum since there are several countries where the numbers of the second and/or the third weekend are not known.

Regardless these aren't very good numbers.  At this pace it's more like $80 million domestic, international before Japan and China $115 million. Looking more like a $220 million to $230 million worldwide box office. Even though the Asian markets have shown an increase I don't think we can count on that given the way the rest of the world is performing.

Fox is probably in the Red after theatrical release is over.