Fede Alvarez’s “Alien: Romulus” is on track for a $40+ million domestic box-office opening weekend following a $6.5 million in Thursday preview and a further $12 million on Friday. How far above that it will go isn’t clear yet.

Internationally the film is expected to take in a further $35 million for a $75-80 million global debut. ‘Romulus,’ which has scored a B+ CinemaScore from audiences, isn’t expected to beat the $51 million domestic opening weekend record for the franchise set by Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” in 2012. What it does look very likely to beat though is the fourth weekend of “Deadpool & Wolverine” which took in $8.

5 million on Friday and is headed for a $27-29 million domestic haul for second place and a total domestic haul to date of $545.7 million. Internationally that film has already passed “Joker” at $1.

078 billion to become the highest grossing R-rated film of all time. Marvel chief Kevin Feige himself has released a statement (see below) in the wake of that record being broken. Third domestically will be the Blake Lively-led romance drama “It Ends With Us” which took $7.

5 million on Friday and is tracking for a second weekend of $23 million – down by 54%. Even with it out on PVOD, “Twisters” hasn’t been hurt in its fifth weekend – dropping just 44% for an $8.4 million three-day haul and a total of $237 million so far.

Fifth will be the 15th anniversary re-release of “Coraline” with an excellent $7.3 million f.