'Twisters' rocks box office with powerful $80.5 million opening weekend

“Twisters” is taking the box office by storm.

The movie, a standalone sequel to the 1996 disaster epic “Twister,” has collected a massive $80.5 million from 4,151 North American theaters in its debut. Heading into the weekend, the follow-up film was projected to generate $50 million to $55 million. It’s the third biggest opening weekend of the year behind “Inside Out 2” ($154 million) and “Dune: Part Two” ($82 million) and ahead of “Godzilla x Kong” ($80 million). Directed by “Minari” filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung, “Twisters” stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos as storm chasers who find themselves in the fight of their lives as multiple tornadoes converge over central Oklahoma.

Analysts believe several factors contributed to the surge in initial ticket sales, the most important being that audiences simply dug the film. It holds an “A-” on CinemaScore. Nostalgia for the original blockbuster, starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes and Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as the rising bankability of its stars Powell (of “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Anyone But You” fame) and Edgar-Jones (a favorite from Hulu’s romantic drama “Normal People”), helped to drive interest.

“It’s perfect summer entertainment,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “This is essentially the same havoc we saw the first time, but it’s 28 years later, and the spectacle, the special effects and the set pieces are bigger and better.”

“Twisters” cost $155 million to produce, not including the many millions in marketing. Universal Pictures backed the movie and released it domestically while Warner Bros. has international rights.

Though “Twisters” easily rocketed to No. 1 on domestic charts, comparisons to the same weekend in 2023 were tough. That’s because this time last year, “Barbenheimer” fever was sweeping the nation. Yet after a slow start to summer, the box office is finally gaining momentum thanks to several overperforming tentpoles like “Inside Out 2,” “Despicable Me 4” and “A Quiet Place: Day One.” Over the past month or so, the year-to-date deficit has shrunk from 21% to 17%, according to Comscore.

“A summer season that started off inauspiciously with a series of less than stellar box office performances has been turbocharged with a cavalcade of hits,” says Paul Dergarabedian, a senior Comscore analyst. “[It has] fueled a resurgence in June and July and sparked an impressive turnaround for studios and movie theatres alike.”

In second place, Universal and Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4” added $23 million from 4,112 venues in its third weekend of release. So far, the animated sequel has generated $259 million domestically. The franchise, which includes the popular “Minions” movies, recently became the first animated series to top $5 billion at the global box office.

Disney’s Pixar sequel “Inside Out 2” landed at No. 3 with $12.7 million from 3,625 locations in its sixth weekend in theaters. The follow-up film is just short of clearing the $600 million mark in North America with ticket sales at $596 million. Globally, it’s the second-highest-grossing animated film in history with $1.443 billion and will soon surpass “Frozen 2” ($1.45 billion) to claim the top spot. “Inside Out 2” is also about to overtake “Barbie” ($1.446 billion) as the 14th biggest movie of all time.

Neon’s breakout horror hit “Longlegs” took fourth place in North America, adding a solid $11.7 million from 2,850 theaters in its sophomore outing. Revenues declined just 48% from its opening weekend, which is impressive for the horror genre. “Longlegs” has grossed $44.6 million to date.

Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” rounded out the top five with $6.1 million from 2,913 venues. After four weeks on the big screen, the nearly silent sci-fi thriller has earned $127.6 million. By comparison, the two prior installments in the franchise, 2018’s “A Quiet Place” and 2021’s “A Quiet Place Part II” tapped out domestically with $188 million and $160 million, respectively.

Elsewhere, “Fly Me to the Moon,” a $100 million-budgeted romantic comedy from Sony and Apple, failed to rebound after its concerningly Earth-bound $11 million debut. Ticket sales plummeted 68% from last weekend with $3 million from 3,356 theaters. The film, starring Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson as a NASA director and marketing expert who have a meet-cute against the backdrop of the Apollo 11 mission, has generated a paltry $16 million to date. It’s one of the biggest box office disasters of the year.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com