Spielberg’s Alien Comeback Opens to $44 Million and Somehow Disappoints Everyone

Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day opened in theaters June 12, 2026, earning an estimated $44 million domestically over its opening weekend, with approximately half of that revenue driven by IMAX and other premium large-format screenings across 312 premium screens. Universal drew a notably older audience: roughly 40% of ticket buyers were over 45 years old, with millennials (ages 25–34) making up 24% [1]. The film stars Emily Blunt as a television meteorologist who unexpectedly develops the ability to speak an alien language live on air, Josh O’Connor as a government whistleblower with intimate knowledge of an 80-year extraterrestrial cover-up, and Colman Domingo as a figure engineering the public release of suppressed evidence [3].

Disclosure Day holds an 81% critics score and a 74% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes as of opening weekend. Reviews have been divided: NPR called it a return to “familiar alien territory with mixed results,” while other critics credited Blunt with grounding an otherwise chaotic film [2]. A press screening at The Grove in Los Angeles reportedly drew “limp claps and a lot of cynicism from fellow reporters,” according to Variety’s tracking report [4]. Spielberg told CBS News he personally believes aliens “have been here, and are here,” describing the project as a deeply held conviction rather than a commercial exercise [5].

Why It Sucks:

Moviegoers and Spielberg Fans

• The IMAX premium buys the same film on a bigger screen. Spielberg shot Disclosure Day traditionally rather than natively in IMAX — meaning audiences paying $30+ for the premium format are watching the identical film available in standard for half the price, with no native large-format footage to justify the surcharge [1, 4].
• Audiences are cooler on it than critics. The 74% audience score sits meaningfully below the 81% critics rating, a gap that typically signals front-loaded ticket sales propped up by marketing rather than genuine word-of-mouth enthusiasm — and predicts a steeper-than-expected second-weekend drop [1, 2].
• Younger audiences didn’t show up even for Spielberg. With only 24% of opening-weekend ticket buyers in the millennial bracket and the under-35 slice thinner still, the film’s cultural pull is running almost entirely on nostalgia for a director whose peak alien work is four decades old [1].

Film Critics and Cinephiles

• An 81% score is a “B” on a prestige blockbuster curve. For a major Spielberg return to the alien genre that produced E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, “mixed results” from NPR and “limp claps” at the industry press screening represent a clear gap between the prestige marketing campaign and what was actually delivered [2, 4].
• The plot recycles the director’s own playbook. A conspiracy to suppress extraterrestrial life, a civilian who stumbles into forbidden truth, and a government whistleblower with a special connection to alien beings are beats Spielberg has worked before — and reviewers calling the result “chaotic” suggests the formula no longer generates the same electricity [2, 3].
• Premium screens that could serve bolder films are locked here all weekend. IMAX and PLF auditoriums running continuous Disclosure Day showings during opening weekend are unavailable to mid-budget or artistically ambitious films that depend on those same premium slots to compete commercially — the blockbuster concentration effect at work [1, 4].

Theater Owners and Cinema Exhibitors

• Half the opening revenue came from a fraction of all screens. Roughly 50% of the $44 million domestic opening was driven by IMAX and PLF auditoriums, which represent a small slice of total screens — confirming that standard-format theaters can no longer generate audience urgency on their own, even for a director of Spielberg’s commercial stature [1].
• Exhibitors without premium screens are structurally cut out. Regional and mid-size theaters that can’t afford IMAX retrofits are collecting a disproportionately small share of blockbuster revenue in a market that increasingly concentrates earnings in premium-capable venues [1, 4].
• The over-45 audience skew is an existential long-term signal. An opening weekend where 40% of buyers are over 45 years old tells the exhibition industry what it already fears most: theatrical moviegoing is an aging habit, and no amount of prestige filmmaker marketing is turning the under-35 demographic into reliable theatergoers [1].

Sources & Citations:

[1] Deadline: Steven Spielberg’s ‘Disclosure Day’ Beaming Up $44M U.S. Opening
[2] NPR: ‘Disclosure Day’ Review — Spielberg Returns to Familiar Alien Territory
[3] The National Desk: ‘Disclosure Day’ Brings Spielberg Back to Alien Life, with Mixed Results
[4] Variety: Can Steven Spielberg and ‘Disclosure Day’ Rule the Summer Box Office?
[5] CBS News: Spielberg on Aliens — ‘I Absolutely Think That They Have Been Here, and They Are Here’