While it got fans of the series excited, those who don’t consider themselves Alien fans appear to have stayed home, and those moviegoers may have been the ones that gave Prometheus a bigger opening weekend than Alien: Covenant received simply because that one wasn’t an Alien movie in the traditional sense.
Prometheus, the previous film in the franchise was barely an Alien movie and fans of the series made their displeasure known when the movie only gave the barest hint of the xenomorph at the end of the picture.
Ridley Scott and the studio heard the displeasure, as Alien: Covenant was presented clearly as an Alien movie.
While many major film franchises have found their place in the new “cinematic universe” focused Hollywood, the Alien series has yet to find its footing.