Warning: This article includes minor SPOILERS for Twisters (2024)
Summary
The news that theTwisterrebootTwistershas proven a huge success shouldn’t be too shocking given everything the movie has going for it.Twistersis a 2024 reboot of the popular 1996 disaster movieTwister. Like the original movie,Twistersfollows a group of storm chasers, adventurous meteorologists who pursue tornadoes. Some, like Glen Powell’s Tyler Owens, chase tornadoes to have fun and help out survivors, while others want to profit from them. Daisy Edgar-Jones’s heroine, Kate, hopes to find a way to neutralize their devastating impact on civilian populations through scientific inquiry, a goal she abandons after a tragedy.
WhileTwisters’ ending sees Kate finally returnto her ambitious plan, that is not the only reason that the reboot proved a huge hit on its opening weekend. With a budget of between $155 and 200 million,Twistersmade $123 million in its opening weekend alone. The reboot had the biggest domestic opening for a natural disaster movie and is on track to outdo its predecessor, which earned an impressive $495.7 million back in 1996. In a summer that has been anything but predictable at the box office, there are numerous reasons thatTwistersresonated with audiences so intensely.
Twisters Will Have A Very Hard Time Beating One Original Twister Record
Twisters may have secured a higher Rotten Tomatoes score than Twister, but the new flick will have a hard time beating one of the 1996 film’s records.
10Glen Powell Is A Major Movie Star & A Big Draw For Audiences
The Anyone But You Star Is Proving Box Office Gold In 2024
One major factor in the success ofTwistersis its leading man.Twistersstar Glen Powell is quickly proving a huge hit with audiences and critics alike, with the actor impressing earlier in the summer in Netflix’sHit Man. While that Richard Linklater movie earned a superb 95% rating onRotten Tomatoes, Powell’s earlier 2024 hitAnyone But Youmade a whopping $220 million at the box office. It is clear that the leading man has serious star power and can carry a summer blockbuster, withTwisterseven borrowing from Powell’s real life childhoodfor one pivotal scene.
Director Lee Isaac Chung’s Movie Was Well Received By Critics
AlthoughTwisterswasn’t necessarily expected to flop, the critical acclaim that the reboot received still came as a minor surprise. Director Lee Isaac Chung’s reboot could have felt like a cash-in or an unnecessary revival, but instead,Twistersmanaged to rack up a 77% critical rating onRotten Tomatoes. That number is impressive on its own, but what makes it more surprising is the fact that director Jan De Bont’s originalTwisterhas only 67% from reviewers on the site.
Twistersearning solid reviews is less surprising considering the pedigree of its cast. Powell is a rising star who impressed in everything fromTop Gun: MavericktoScream Queens, while Edgar-Jones was catapulted to stardom by 2020’s acclaimed Sally Rooney adaptationNormal People. That said, it is still striking to see a summer blockbuster earn such unequivocal praise and this undoubtedly contributed to the reboot’s box office success.
8The Original Twister Was A Big Success
1996’s Twister Earned Almost $500 Million Upon Release
There aren’t manyconnections betweenTwisterandTwisters, with the reboot jettisoning any legacy characters and many links to the original movie. However, the positive reception ofTwisterstill likely contributed to the new movie’s success.Twisterblended a sweet love story between Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt’s heroes with a fast-paced disaster movie plot. This resulted in a uniquely fun summer blockbuster that felt fresh and, thanks to De Bont’s direction, incredibly propulsive.
Add in stellar supporting work from Philip Seymour Hoffman and a scenery-chewing Cary Elwes andTwisterwas always guaranteed to become a cult classic. As such,Twistersbenefited from the popularity ofTwistersince viewers fondly recall the original movie. The fact thatTwistersdoesn’t overly lean into nostalgic callbacks to the movie’s predecessor is also positive. This makes the reboot feel fresh, even though it is indebted thematically and tonally to the originalTwister.
7Twisters Arrived During An Underwhelming Box Office Summer
Summer 2024 has been a historically weird season for the box office, andTwistersarrived at a time when numerous major movies underperformed upon release. May’sFuriosa: A Mad Max Sagawas a major box office disappointment, while bothArgyleandGhostbusters: Frozen Empiresuffered similarly disastrous fates earlier in the year. AlthoughInside Out 2andDespicable Me 4both performed well, their status as children’s movies makes them outliers.
Twistersproves that summer blockbusters can still succeed even if they aren’t marketed to children
In recent weeks,Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,A Quiet Place: Day One, andBad Boys: Ride or Dieall proved that the box office wasn’t necessarily in trouble despite high-profile flops likeThe Fall Guy. Now,Twistersproves that summer blockbusters can still succeed even if they aren’t marketed to children and don’t include any superheroes. This is great news for the rest of the year’s releases.
6Twisters Is The Kind Of Movie People Want To See In Theaters
The Scope and Scale Of Twisters Makes A Cinema Release Ideal
Another element ofTwisters’ opening weekend success is the movie’s scope.Twistersis the sort of big, epic blockbuster viewers want to see in cinemas, and it is fair to say that something of the movie’s scale will likely be lost upon its arrival on VOD.Twisters’ tornado science might not be entirely accurate, but the movie’s action is undeniably impactful.
Like 2022’sTop Gun: Maverick,Twistersis a uniquely cinematic experience. Since the movie is so well-suited to theatrical viewing, it is no surprise that viewers flocked to see it on the big screen. However, this alone is not a guarantee of success. After all,Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagawas equally ambitious in its scope and this didn’t save its prospects at the box office.
5Twisters Reunited Glen Powell With A Top Gun: Maverick Creator
Top Gun: Maverick’s Director Joseph Kosinski Wrote The Story
On the topic of 2022’s smash hit legacy sequelTop Gun: Maverick, part ofTwisters’ success can be credited to that movie’s director.Top Gun: Maverickdirector Joseph Kosinski wroteTwisters’ storyand the reboot shares that earlier sequel’s ability to balance nostalgic elements with a fresh new plot.Twistersdoesn’t disregard its new characters to focus on the original movie’s story, but it still feels like a worthy continuation of theTwisterstory.
It is unlikely thatTwisterscould have centered on Powell’s antihero if it weren’t for his instantly iconic supporting role inTop Gun: Maverick.
This could be due to Kosinski’s influence. The director was certainly instrumental in amplifying Powell’s star power, and it is unlikely thatTwisterscould have centered on Powell’s antihero if it weren’t for his instantly iconic supporting role inTop Gun: Maverick. Thus, the 2022 blockbuster can share a little credit for the success of 2024’sTwisterstwo summers later.
4Twisters Focused On An Under-Used Setting For Hollywood Blockbusters
Twisters Centered Part of the US That Receives Less Focus
Twistersis mostly set in Oklahoma, and this offers the movie a chance to center part of America that hasn’t seen much focus from Hollywood in recent years. Looking back on the last few summers of blockbusters, almost none of them took place outside major cities. The closest thing to a huge hit that is set in a rural community is 2021’sGhostbusters: Afterlife, which is also set in the same state. However, that reboot used the setting for little more than a few throwaway gags about small-town boredom. In contrast,Twistershas an affinity for its setting.
A lengthy scene set at a rodeo ensures thatTwistersgives more screen time to middle America than most recent major movies attempt.
Twistersis a rare Hollywood blockbuster with an unapologetically rural setting and the movie never lets viewers forget this. AlthoughTwisters’ ending scene maytake place at an airport, the heroine notably never gets back on her plane to New York. The country music soundtrack and a lengthy scene set at a rodeo ensure thatTwistersgives more screen time to Middle America than most recent major movies attempt. This paid off big at the box office.
3Twisters Has A Great Supporting Cast Of Rising Stars
Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, And David Corenswet All Feature
While Powell and Edgar-Jones are both already major names,Twistershas a great supporting cast who are widely known and well-liked.Hamiltonstar Anthony Ramos is superb as Javi, while Daryl McCormack and Kiernan Shipka both manage to make an impression despite their limited roles. Thanks to the pair,Twisters’ thrilling opening sceneis one of the movie’s best moments. Meanwhile, David Corenswet is a ton of fun as the snide, villainous Scott, whose role could not be further from the emerging star’s upcoming role as Superman. Like the originalTwister,Twistersbenefits from a solid ensemble.
2Twisters Repeated The Original Movie’s Best Trick
Twisters Is Both A Rom-Com And A Disaster Movie
Although the supporting players are great,Twisterslives or dies based on the chemistry between its leads. Like the original movie,Twistersis as much a rom-com as a disaster movie.The playful exchanges between Edgar-Jones’ Kate and Powell’s Tyler anchor the movie, andTwistersspends as much time fleshing out their romance as the movie devotes to its storms. While this could become tiresome, the witty repartee that the duo share makes their interplay charming. As a result, viewers are likely to be doubly engaged as they hope for the heroes both to survive and to get together in the end.
1Twisters Revived A Dormant Genre
Disaster Movies Haven’t Been A Multiplex Staple Recently
AlthoughHelen Hunt didn’t return forTwisters, this doesn’t mean that the movie didn’t bring back anything from the original.Twistersmanaged to revive the disaster movie genre, a long-time multiplex staple that hasn’t been seen in recent years. The last major disaster movie was 2020’sGreenland, which underperformed like many of the year’s releases due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, disaster movies haven’t fared particularly well at the box office as superhero movies dominated the big budget output of most major studios. Now,Twistersproved that disaster movies are profitable again and viewers clearly miss them.
