‘Twisters’ Box Office Numbers Prove Movies Are So Back, Baby

Whenever a new movie finds success at the box office, we want to unpack why that happened. Right now, that is happening with Twisters. The 2024 film, which is a followup (of sorts) to the 1996 film Twister, brought us back into the storm and fans cannot get enough.

Currently, the movie is a fast storm, whipping up the box office on its way to $100 million and currently stands as the 116th biggest box office opening ever, according to Box Office Mojo, after an opening of over $80 million. Sure, that might not seem like anything new or exciting, but when you look at how long it has been since a movie took off like this? It is exciting!

Last summer, we had the boom of Barbie and Oppenheimer to bring fans back to theaters, and then it once again petered out. We were stuck in cycle where movies would open and have a weekend to make some kind of meaningful amount of money before they were getting thrown on streamers. Now, we are living in Glen Powell summer when people are mad that the film is leaving 4DX already.

That’s exciting to see! It hasn’t really felt this way in a long time. Barbenheimer was a different experience. We all built that up for months before it happened. People had shirts made, we all dressed up, and we wanted to be part of the conversation, so the box office reflected that. It helped that those movies ruled, too.

With Twisters, this is a more organic growth at the box office that we used to see back in the good ol’ days of the ’90s and early ’00s. (God, I am old.) When movies used to have a chance to earn more (and were good movies), they’d break records!

Maybe we all can learn from Twisters

Okay, maybe Twisters isn’t telling us something we don’t already know about the box office, but maybe it will send a message to the people in charge that the theatrical experience is not dead outside of huge franchises. If you make a good movie, chances are that people will want to see it. To be honest, I don’t see why we can’t have some 4DX theaters playing Deadpool & Wolverine and others playing Twisters.

The point of this is that people want good movies, and if they exist, they will go out to the theaters to see them. I think the conversation recently had boiled down to people acting like no one wanted to go to the cinemas anymore. We do! But we need a movie that is worth our time and money to go and see.

It will be interesting to see how Twisters faces off against Deadpool & Wolverine this coming weekend, but while you still can, I highly suggest taking the ride and going to your own 4DX screening of the movie. I will quite literally never be the same.