Alien: Covenant edges out Guardians at the weekend B.O.

It was a close-run race for No. 1 with director Ridley Scott’s chiller earning $36 million, just $900,000 ahead of the Chris Pratt starrer’s take. The placings may well be reversed when the actual figures drop Monday.

Alien: Covenant knocked Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 off the top spot at the weekend box office where it has been firmly berthed for two weeks.

Director Ridley Scott’s latest Alien exploit opened with $36 million, according to Box Office Mojo on Sunday, while Guardians was just $900,000 behind with $35.1 million in its third week of release.

And since the estimates for the movie, starring Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, aka Star Lord, have been under by between $1.5 million and $2.25 million for the past two weekends, it may will sneak ahead of Alien when the final tallies come in on Monday.

R-rated Alien: Covenant is a dark scare-fest about parasitic space monsters that continues the franchise that kicked off in 1979.

Back then it starred Sigourney Weaver as a member on a spaceship that inadvertently brings a young monster aboard in the stomach of a colleague, played by John Hurt.

The latest film stars Michael Fassbener, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup and Danny McBride as the crew of a colony ship bound for a remote planet, who discover an uncharted paradise with a threat beyond their imagination.

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