Glen Powell's 'Twisters' Shocks With Third Biggest Opening Of The Year At $80.5 Million

 

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Glen Powell, left, and Daisy Edgar-Jones in a scene from "Twisters."

Hollywood it-man Glen Powell delivered another box office success this weekend with “Twisters,” a sequel to the almost 30-year-old hit “Twister” that blew past expectations to gross $80.5 million in the third-best opening of the year.

KEY FACTS

“Twisters” was projected to rake in roughly $50 million at the box office in its opening weekend but topped that by more than 60%, putting it behind only "Dune: Part Two" and "Inside Out 2" for the year’s biggest opening weekends.

The movie, billed as a “stand-alone sequel” to its 1996 predecessor, was liked by 78% of critics and a whopping 92% of audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, earning praise as a "wonderfully mindless adventure" and "fun summer blockbuster."

The impressive debut gives "Twisters" the largest opening weekend ever for a disaster movie in unadjusted terms, besting 2004's "The Day After Tomorrow” ($68.4 million).

“Twisters” is helping the summer box office rebound from a lackluster start that threatened to pull down year-end box office projections beyond their already-diminished expectations, adding to a series of surprise summer successes that have so far included “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” and “A Quiet Place: Day One.”

"Despicable Me 4" was the second-highest-grossing film of the weekend with additional box office sales of $23 million, followed by "Inside Out 2" with $12.7 million, further cementing its position as the highest-grossing film of the year.

Horror film "Longlegs" was the fourth-highest-grossing movie of the weekend with $11.7 million and "A Quiet Place: Day One” grossed another $6.1 million, avoiding the pitfalls of many series prequels after scoring the best opening weekend among the franchise’s three films.

KEY BACKGROUND

“Twisters” stars Powell ("Anyone but You," "Top Gun: Maverick") alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones ("Normal People," "Where the Crawdads Sing") and Anthony Ramos ("Hamilton") as storm chasers who follow severe weather to Oklahoma. The movie follows an entirely new cast than the original "Twister" and is set in the same world, but there are otherwise no major connections to the 1996 film. It does feature a cameo from James Paxton, son of the original "Twister" star Bill Paxton, and name drops the tornado-measuring technology from the first film, Dorothy. Otherwise, the film stands on its own.

BIG NUMBER

$2.1 billion. That's how much the summer box office has grossed in the first nine weekends of the summer box office season, which runs the 15 weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Movies will need to gross an additional $1.9 billion to hit last year's impressive $4 billion mark—the most successful summer since before the COVID-19 pandemic. “Deadpool 3” and “Alien: Romulus” could still help boost numbers, but the largest anticipated releases of the season have otherwise already premiered.