Twisters Demolishes Its Opening Box Office with $80+ Million Haul

Twisters was released in theaters this weekend and the follow-up to the classic 1996 disaster film has proved people still want to mix their tornadoes with a little romance. The movie is currently up on Rotten Tomatoes with a "Certified Fresh" critics score of 78% and an audience score of 92%. ComicBook's Charlie Ridgely gave the film a 4 out of 5 and called it "a spectacular throwback to the blockbusters we love." In addition to getting good reviews, the movie is also exceeding expectations at the box office. The film was tracking for a $40 Million to $55 million domestic opening , and it ended up making a whopping $80.5 million.

Twisters made its debut in 4,151 theaters in North America and has officially surpassed Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($80 million) and Despicable Me 4 ($75 million) to earn the third-highest box office opening weekend of the year. The current top two domestic opening weekends earners for the year are Inside Out 2 at $154 million and Dune: Part Two at $82 million.

Twisters cost $155 million to make, not including the marketing budget, and it looks like it's on track to be a success for Universal Pictures. It will be interesting to see how Twisters will do in its second weekend when Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters. The highly-anticipated Marvel threequel is tracking to have a $160 million to $165 million opening, which would dethrone Inside Out 2 as having the highest opening of the year. However, it will have a long way to go to beat Inside Out 2 's current worldwide total.

As for the second-place spot at the box office, Despicable Me 4 added $23 million to its domestic total in its third weekend. Currently, the animated film's total is $259 million domestically and $574 million worldwide. Inside Out 2 is holding strong in third place, adding $12.7 million to its domestic total. Currently, it's the second-highest-grossing animated film of all time with a worldwide total of $1.443 billion. It's also expected to surpass Frozen 2 's $1.45 billion to take the number one spot.

In fourth place this weekend at the domestic box office is Longlegs . The new horror film had the biggest opening for Neon last weekend and has reached $11.7 million for a new total of $44.6 million. Finally, A Quiet Place: Day One took the weekend's fifth spot, adding $6.1 million to its domestic total of $127.6 million.

Stay tuned for more box office updates from ComicBook.