Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day opened to $92.8 million worldwide in its opening weekend, giving the director his best debut for an original science fiction film and signalling strong audience appetite for the kind of large-scale, idea-driven blockbuster that Spielberg built his career on.

The film earned $44 million domestically and $48.9 million internationally across its debut weekend, having released on June 12. Those figures place it well above the break-even point for a film that was produced on a reported mid-range studio budget, and the strong international component suggests it will build further through the coming weeks in markets including the UK, Germany, Japan, and Australia.

Disclosure Day stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, and Colin Firth in a story set around a hypothetical government announcement of confirmed extraterrestrial contact. Spielberg directs from an original screenplay, marking his return to the science fiction genre that produced some of his most celebrated work including Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. Reviews have been strongly positive, with a 91 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and widespread praise for Blunt’s performance and the film’s restraint in how it handles the central premise.

The opening was particularly notable given the current state of the cinema market. Several large-scale studio releases this year have underperformed against expectations, and there has been ongoing debate about whether audiences will return to theatres for original stories not based on existing intellectual property. Disclosure Day offers a significant data point on the positive side of that argument.

Universal Pictures distributed the film in the United States and will be tracking closely how the audience score holds up into its second and third weekends. The film has an A- CinemaScore, indicating strong audience satisfaction, which typically supports solid week-on-week holds.

Spielberg last directed a feature in 2022. Disclosure Day is his first film since then and only his second original science fiction script in decades. The production was kept largely under wraps during development, with the cast confirmed only four months before release.

Emily Blunt has now had back-to-back strong film performances following her work in last year’s drama release. Industry observers expect awards season conversation to begin around her role in Disclosure Day as the year progresses.