“Alien: Romulus,” the latest chapter in a sci-fi and horror saga that taught audiences that “in space, no one can hear you scream,” is making some noise at the box office. The film earned a solid $6.5 million in previews on Thursday and is expected to gross $28 million to $38 million in its first weekend of release. However, some rivals and independent tracking services believe Disney and 20th Century, the studios behind the film, are being conservative in their estimates. They expect “Alien: Romulus” to debut between $40 million and $50 million.

Thursday’s numbers certainly suggest the final results will be on the high side of projections. They compare favorably to other recent horror-style releases like “A Quiet Place: Day One,” which earned $6.7 million in previews before finishing its opening weekend with $52 million in the bank, or “Nope,” which earned $6.4 million before it opened with $44 million in its first weekend.

If “Alien: Romulus” draws a big audience, it will extend Disney’s recent run of success. After a tough 2023, a year that saw Disney and the brands it controls release commercial disappointments like “The Marvels” ($206.1 million) and “Wish” ($255 million), the studio has staged a remarkable comeback. This summer alone saw the debuts of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” ($397 million), “Inside Out 2” ($1.59 billion) and “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($1.03 billion), putting Disney at the top of the market share charts with more than $3 billion in global ticket sales. Looking ahead, Disney should add to that total with the upcoming releases of “Moana 2” (Nov. 27) and “Mufasa: The Lion King” (Dec. 20).

“Alien: Romulus” is the seventh film in the “Alien” franchise, which is set in the distant future, one in which intergalactic travelers repeatedly encounter a life form that’s both very hard to kill and very good at killing. Fede Alvarez (“Don't Breathe”) directed the film, joining a long and distinguished lineage of filmmakers who have staged facehugger-themed carnage over the decades, including Ridley Scott, the OG behind the inaugural 1979 film “Alien”; James Cameron, who put a feminist spin on the series with 1986’s “Aliens”; and David Fincher, who is trying to forget the experience of “Alien 3” despite giving Sigourney Weaver a memorable buzz cut. Set between the events of Scott's first film and Cameron's "Aliens," Alvarez follows a group of colonists (including Cailee Spaeny, Archie Renaux and Isabela Merced) who are on the verge of a high mortality rate on a derelict space station that is home to a xenomorph cracker.