It may not quite have set the North American box office alight, but it looks like the international markets may save director Robert Rodriguez and producer James Cameron’s Alita: Battle Angel from all of the early predictions of doom and gloom.
The manga adaptation opened in China this weekend, where it secured 20th Century Fox its biggest ever opening in the Middle Kingdom with $64.8 million. It has now grossed $202.7 million internationally to soften a domestic drop of almost 60% in its second weekend, and has amassed $263.3 million globally to date.
Alita had a production budget of around $170 million, and when you factor in an expensive marketing campaign, some analysts had been suggesting that Fox could lose around $200 million on the movie. That seems highly unlikely at this point now, although it’s said that the film will need to gross anywhere between $400 million and $500 million to break even.
Visionary filmmakers James Cameron (AVATAR) and Robert Rodriguez (SIN CITY) create a groundbreaking new heroine in ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL, an action-packed story of hope, love and empowerment. Set several centuries in the future, the abandoned Alita (Rosa Salazar) is found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate cyber-doctor who takes the unconscious cyborg Alita to his clinic. When Alita awakens she has no memory of who she is, nor does she have any recognition of the world she finds herself in. Everything is new to Alita, every experience a first. As she learns to navigate her new life and the treacherous streets of Iron City, Ido tries to shield Alita from her mysterious past while her street-smart new friend, Hugo (Keean Johnson), offers instead to help trigger her memories. A growing affection develops between the two until deadly forces come after Alita and threaten her newfound relationships. It is then that Alita discovers she has extraordinary fighting abilities that could be used to save the friends and family she’s grown to love. Determined to uncover the truth behind her origin, Alita sets out on a journey that will lead her to take on the injustices of this dark, corrupt world, and discover that one young woman can change the world in which she lives.
Alita: Battle Angel features a cast that includes Rosa Salazar (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained), Michelle Rodriguez (The Fate of the Furious), Keean Johnson (Nashville), Jackie Earle Haley (Preacher), Jennifer Connelly (American Pastoral), Ed Skrein (Deadpool), Eiza Gonzalez (From Dusk Till Dawn), Mahershala Ali (Luke Cage), Lana Condor (X-Men: Apocalypse) and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Spider-Man: Homecoming).
