With the blockbuster Cailee Spaeny has proven herself to be the breakout box office star of the year. Spaeny’s rise to stardom has been a long time coming. She made her on-screen debut in 2018 with one of the lead roles in Pacific Rim Uprising alongside John Boyega. While it didn’t match its predecessor’s critical or commercial success, the Pacific Rim sequel did put Spaeny on Hollywood’s radar and led to starring roles in Devs, Mare of Easttown, and The Craft: Legacy.
In 2023, Spaeny scored her biggest break yet with the role of Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s critically acclaimed biopic Priscilla. While Priscilla garnered plenty of praise and awards for Spaeny – including the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival – it still wasn’t a big box office success. In 2024, Spaeny has finally emerged as a bona fide movie star and box office draw with back-to-back blockbuster hits. One of those hits belongs to a beloved franchise, but the other one was a massive risk.
Cailee Spaeny Helped Lead Civil War & Alien: Romulus To Box Office Success
Spaeny's Rising Star Power Boosted These Movies At The Box Office
Throughout this year, Spaeny has starred in Civil War, a dystopian thriller set in a near-future America ravaged by political unrest under a dictator president, and Alien: Romulus, a standalone Alien movie about young space miners encountering a nest of xenomorphs on an abandoned station. Both of these movies have been successful at the box office. Civil War grossed $122,606,096 (via the second highest-grossing Alien movie after Ridley Scott’s Prometheus.
Movie |
Budget |
Box Office |
|---|---|---|
Civil War |
$50 million |
$122,606,096 |
Alien: Romulus |
$80 million |
$331,516,724 |
The box office success of these movies can’t be entirely attributed to Spaeny’s rising star power. Alien: Romulus was helped by its connection to one of the most beloved horror movie franchises of all time, not to mention enthusiastic reviews promising fans of that franchise the best installment since 1986’s Aliens. Civil War was helped by its high-concept conceit; the notion of a modern-day American Civil War brought to life on the big screen certainly got people talking. But Spaeny’s star power was definitely a factor in these movies’ success.
Cailee Spaeny's Projects Won't Add To Her Box Office Run
Spaeny's Next Couple Of Projects Are Streaming Exclusives
While Spaeny has some exciting future projects lined up, they won’t make an impact on her impressive box office run. Spaeny has reportedly been cast in Beef season 2 on Netflix; she’ll apparently co-star with May December’s Charles Melton as a feuding couple in the second installment of the hit anthology series. Beef season 2 will undoubtedly be a huge success with plenty of viewers tuning in, but since it’s a TV show going straight to streaming, it sadly won’t add a single cent to Spaeny’s current box office streak.
Beef wasn’t originally conceived as an anthology show, but the success of the series convinced Netflix to turn it into one.
Rian Johnson has added Spaeny to the sprawling ensemble cast of Wake Up Dead Man, the third movie in his Knives Out murder mystery franchise. In addition to a returning Daniel Craig as private detective Benoit Blanc, Spaeny will be ed by Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, and Andrew Scott. Again, the Knives Out threequel will surely be a huge hit for Netflix. But, again, it’s going straight to Netflix, so it won’t add to Spaeny’s box office total.
Cailee Spaeny Is Still Set Up For More Box Office Success In The Future
The Inevitable Sequel To Alien: Romulus Is A Sure-Fire Hit
Just because Spaeny’s next couple of projects are going straight to Netflix, it doesn’t mean she won’t continue her box office success in the future. After the blockbuster success of Alien: Romulus – and the ending of Alien: Romulus leaving the door open for more adventures – a sequel is inevitable. And when Disney announces a sequel to Alien: Romulus, it’ll surely bring back Spaeny’s Rain for more xenomorph-slaying antics. This will give Spaeny a major sci-fi franchise as a goose that keeps laying golden eggs as she explores riskier, less commercial fare like Priscilla and Civil War.
How Old Cailee Spaeny's Rain Is In Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus has shaken up the franchise with a younger cast than usual, but exactly how old is Cailee Spaeny's character Rain supposed to be?
Spaeny is such a versatile actor that she’ll surely have plenty of work coming her way for years to come. In Alien: Romulus, she’s a badass action hero. In Priscilla, she gives a sobering dramatic performance as an iconic real-life figure. In Civil War, she conveys the terror of witnessing the horrors of warfare at an impressionable young age. Cailee Spaeny can apparently do anything, and so far, Hollywood has just scratched the surface of her talents.
Source: Box Office Mojo
