One features a ramshackle group of heroes who get help from a small, cute creature with a slightly violent side. The other features a ramshackle group of heroes who definitely do not get help from a small, terrifying creature (and its bigger cousin) with an extremely violent side. But there can only be one winner each time at the US box office, and this weekend the victor, by a xenomorph snout, was Alien: Covenant, according to studio estimates.
Ridley Scott's return to the Alien universe drew mixed reviews and hasn't exactly launched with a big result in the states. In fact, it made $36 million this initial weekend, just sneaking past Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, which took in $35 million – and that was after three weeks on release. Overseas, Covenant arrived earlier here and some other places, meaning that the movie's worldwide total is a little more than $117.8 million. That said, it has a $97 million production budget and expensive advertising spend to make a profit over, so we'll see how it performs given that films in the summer reason barely have a week to establish themselves before the next big title arrives to challenge them.
Guardians, meanwhile, has crossed $301 million in the States and is nearing $733 million globally, racing towards the original's $773 million worldwide total.
Third place went to another new arrival, book adaptation Everything, Everything, which made $12 million. Snatched fell a couple of places to fourth, earning $7.6 million, but that was still better than this week's third new release, Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul. The latest attempt to keep the franchise afloat (this is the fourth of the Kid book adaptations) didn't do much to help, opening much lower than its fellows with $7.2 million in fifth.
King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword shows no sign of becoming a legend itself, slumping to sixth in its second week with $6.8 million added for a $27.2 million US total to date. Fast & Furious 8 (The Fate Of The Furious across the pond) dropped a few places, making $3.1 million in its sixth week.
Also holding on well was The Boss Baby, which took home $2.8 million despite sitting in the charts for eight weeks. And sticking around even longer was Beauty And The Beast, notching up its 10th week with $2.4 million. Finally, comedy success How To Be A Latin Lover (which pulled off a trick by trouncing the Guardians sequel in Mexico) was down to 10th on $2.2 million.