Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters is whipping up huge winds at the box office, with forecasters predicting a far better than expected domestic opening of $80.5 million in North America. That’s even up from Saturday’s already massive estimate of $74.6 million.
The record-breaking movie, playing in 4,151 theaters, easily boasts the top domestic opening ever for a natural disaster film, not adjusted for inflation. (The current crown holder is Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow, which bowed to $68.44 million in 2004.) It’s also the third biggest start of the year to date behind Inside Out 2 ($154.2 million) and Dune: Part Two ($82.5 million) after edging out Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($80 million).
The turnout for Twisters cements the rising star status of Hollywood’s man-of-the-moment Glen Powell, along with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos (the trio lead the ensemble cast). It’s also a notable win for Chung, the acclaimed filmmaker of indie hit Minari. The film’s demos are impressive: It is playing evenly among females and males, as well as appealing to both younger and older adults in what could lead to a new franchise. The film’s critics score on Rotten Tomatoes is a decent 77 percent, but its audience score is much higher at 92 percent, in line with an A- from Cinemascore.
Twisters arrives 28 years after Twister, the envelope-pushing feature that broke ground for marrying visual effects with practical effects. It starred the late Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, and hailed from filmmaker Jan de Bont. The original film was a box office juggernaut, opening to $41 million ($82 million in today’s dollars) and ending its run with $494.5 million globally ($992.08 million today).
Chung shot Twisters in Oklahoma, the heart of Tornado Alley. And, not surprisingly, the movie is doing its biggest business in areas impacted by the dangerous weather phenomenon (Friday’s top theater was in Oklahoma). Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures and Amblin Entertainment are behind the feature, with Universal handling domestic distribution and Warners International taking overseas.
Heading into the weekend, tracking services had Twisters starting off with $40 million to $50 million domestically. Some distributors believed it would go higher, but no one predicted $70 million-plus, much less $80 million. The film is also opening overseas, and cost a net $155 million to produce before marketing.
Twisters easily won the weekend and is a sizeable gift, considering the tough comparisons over the same weekend last year when Barbie and Oppenheimer opened, setting off the Barbenheimer effect. There was no chance that this weekend was ever going to match last year, but it could have been far worse had Twisters not overperformed.
Elsewhere, Universal and Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 held at second in its third outing with an estimated $23.8 million for a domestic total of $159.5 million.
Pixar and Disney’s Inside Out 2 remained a powerhouse in its sixth outing and placed third with an estimated $12.8 million as it prepares to jump the $600 million mark domestically on its way to becoming the top-grossing animated film of all time both in North America and globally. It’s now just days away from surpassing Frozen II’s $1.451 billion in worldwide ticket sales, including $609 million domestically. Inside Out 2 — Pixar’s top-grossing film ever — finished Sunday with a domestic tally of $596.4 million for a worldwide total of of $1.443 billion.
Neon’s breakout horror hit Longlegs continued to win over moviegoers in its second outing, falling a scant 47 percent to $11.7 million for a 10-day domestic total of $44.7 million against a $16 million budget.
Apple Original Films’ Fly Me to the Moon couldn’t boast the same in its second weekend. The romantic-comedy adventure tumbled a steep 65 percent to $3.3 million for a 10-day domestic total of $16.4 million.
Fly Me to the Moon placed sixth on the domestic chart as Paramount’s hit prequel A Quiet Place: Day One rounded out the top five with $6.1 million in its fourth outing for a domestic total $127.6 million and $241.4 million globally.
More to come.
July 21, 7:20 a.m. Updated with revised estimates.
This story was originally published July 20 at 7:42 a.m.