Twisters Blows Away Records Left And Right
A lukewarm summer box office just received a needed jolt to the arm as the special-effects laden Twisters raked in more than $80 million in U.S. box office receipts over its opening weekend. This sets a record in the United States for the debut of a disaster film and makes the film poised to help revitalize a summer at the theaters that has been less than stellar. As it stands, Twisters might blow its way up the list and become one of the highest grossing films of the season.
Twisters
Twisters begins as the film follows a team of storm chasers working with a Dorothy V doppler in rural Oklahoma. With the goal in mind of reducing a tornado’s intensity by launching barrels full of sodium polyacrylate into it, the team suffers a devastating setback as their target suddenly morphs into an EF5 funnel.
Only Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Javi (Anthony Ramos) survive as the storm kills the rest of the crew.
Five years later, Kate and Javi reunite when Kate accepts a temporary position with a tornado radar company.
The two storm chasers join Javi’s business partner Scott (David Corenswet) and a YouTube star named Tyler Owns (Glen Powell) as the streaming sensation’s crew gathers together in Oklahoma to conduct experiments and report on what is anticipated to be a strong surge of powerful twisters.
Twisters Get Top Billing
Twisters sees Kate reconcile with the deaths of her colleagues in the tragic set of events from years earlier as she also struggles to concoct the right formula to reduce the intensity of the tornadoes that they will be facing.
In true disaster-film fashion, the twisters get top-billing as they tear their ways through the countryside and the small towns that dot the rural Oklahoma landscape, leaving paths of destruction in their wake.
Not A Direct Sequel
Twisters used a combination of special effects and real footage of tornadoes caught by storm chaser Sean Casey to create visuals that look as real as possible.
Jet engines, giant wind fans, pneumatic water cannons, and other devices were employed on set to give audiences their money’s worth as they see characters on screen battle through one of the greatest cinematic depictions of a storm ever produced.
The film is a nod to the 1996 disaster film Twister, though the only real connection between the two films centers around the technology developed by the characters in the first movie and used by the players in the second one. Twisters is meant to be a stand-alone sequel but may not be the last in the franchise.
A Slow Summer For Movies
So far this summer, only six films have grossed more than $100 million in ticket sales at U.S. box offices. With Inside Out 2 leading the pack at an estimated $600 million, it’s a big drop off to second place Dune: Part Two at $282 million. Currently sitting in 9th place at $80.5 million, Twisters is expected to continue to climb its way past The Garfield Movie and The Fall Guy as it passes the $100 million mark likely over the next weekend.
Twisters Still Has Work To Do
With a production budget that is an estimated $200 million, Twisters will need boosts to propel it to a profit over the next few weeks. Its global box office returns have broken $125 million, making Universal Pictures hopeful of avoiding a flop.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter
