Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ returns to theaters for 45th anniversary on ‘Alien Day,’ April 26

Edward Douglas
·3 min read
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Back in 1979, director Ridley Scott was mostly unknown outside the realm of commercials, though that would quickly change with his second feature, “Alien.” At the time, those who got to see the movie probably didn’t realize they were watching a movie that would forever change horror and science fiction, as the movie introduced a number of deadly creatures, including the lethal alien of the title that would one day be relabelled, “xenomorph.”

45 years later, 20th Century is re-releasing the sci-fi/horror movie back into theaters for a limited time on April 26, dubbed “Alien Day,” as it will include limited edition posters and other special tie-in collectibles. This may have been prompted by the upcoming August release of filmmaker Fede (“Don’t Breathe”) Alvarez‘s “Alien: Romulus,” giving parent company Disney a doubly good reason to release the original movie back into theaters. On top of that, Scott – who is a producer on the “Aliens” relaunch – sat down with Alvarez for a conversation with Fandango about the long-running franchise, a conversation you can watch here.

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“Alien” opened with just $3.5 million over Memorial Day weekend in 1979, but word-of-mouth built quickly, to the point where it ended up with $62 million, which wasn’t bad for 1979 ticket prices. The movie would also end up receiving two Oscar nominations, for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and for Best Visual Effects, winning the latter.

Future Oscar winner James Cameron would then take over directing the 1986 sequel, “Aliens,” which was a much more action-driven affair, and it opened with $10 million — which, again, doesn’t sound great, but that also benefitted from a summer release and strong word-of mouth. Even so, the resulting franchise never achieved the box office numbers of franchises like “Star Wars” or “Indiana Jones,” usually settling somewhere into the $150 to $190 million range worldwide.

At the same time, the quality of the franchise also began to falter, even with filmmakers who would go onto much greater things, including other future Oscar nominees. Those included a young David Fincher directing “Alien 3” in 1992 and “Alien Resurrection” in 1997, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet of “Amelie” (which also recently received an anniversary re-release). At the same time, the franchise continued to branch out into games, comic books, and other media before 20th Century Fox eventually pit the Aliens against another one of its popular sci-fi franchises for the 2004 “Alien vs. Predator” and its sequel.

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Ironically, Scott returned to the franchise in 2012 to direct two more movies, the prequel “Prometheus” – the only movie with no “Alien” anywhere in the title, but no Xenomorphs either – and its 2017 sequel, “Alien: Covenant.” Globally, they made $402 million and $238.5 million respectively, the most successful movies in the theatrical franchise. Yet, the franchise remained dormant for many years after Disney bought 20th Century Fox, even as Marvel took over publishing the “Alien” comics.

Disney now seems to be ramping up its attempt to get the “Alien” franchise back into the public consciousness, between this 45th Anniversary re-release, Alvarez’s upcoming film, and then next year, Noah Hawley of “Fargo” will have the first season of an “Alien” television series hitting FX and Hulu.

Tickets are on sale now from the usual ticket retailers for the “Alien” 45th Anniversary re-release.

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