Twisters has smashed box office records on its opening weekend, confirming predictions that it would beat the 1996 film it is based on.
READ MORE: Twisters review: ‘90s-style blockbuster sweeps in to save the day
The disaster film raked in $123million at the global box office over the weekend, with the majority of ticket sales (about $80.5million’s worth of revenue) coming from the US. This now means it has enjoyed the biggest weekend ever at the box office for a disaster movie.
Outside of North America, the UK was the film’s next biggest market, where it made $5.5million. By contrast, it performed notably poorly in China, only making $1.5million. In total, it cost $155million to make.
Directed by Minari‘s Lee Isaac Chung, Twisters stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos as a new group of storm chasers left fighting for their lives as multiple tornadoes converge over central Oklahoma, having tried to use sodium polyacrylate solution to reduce their intensity. The original film, Twister, starred Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes and Philip Seymour Hoffman as storm-chasing scientists trying to research the most powerful tornado in decades.
It became a massive hit, becoming the second-highest-grossing movie of 1996, making $500 million globally at the box office. It was later nominated for two Oscars.
In a five-star review of Twisters, NME wrote: “The flick is also cleverly scripted, with Kate’s motivation slowly teased out as we learn she might just have the means of knocking the ‘nados into a cocked hat. The devastation wreaked by the freaky weather is evocatively explored and in this there’s a timely ecological message. Packed with heart, smarts, jaw-dropping effects and an exquisite ensemble cast (shout out to Harry Hadden-Paton’s nerdy British journalist as comic relief), Twisters will have you singing the praises of the multiplex until the cows come home.”
Leading up to the film’s release, it faced a whirlwind of surprise appearances at its premiere events – one in London with the appearance of Tom Cruise, and another in Los Angeles, where enraged PETA activists stormed the stage.
The late Bill Paxton’s son James appears in a cameo in the film as a “disgruntled hotel guest”. “It’s an Easter egg for the fans of Dad and the original,” James has said. “I did this one for Dad”.
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