Eleven years ago, the Regal Warren Moore theater in Oklahoma was severely damaged by an EF5 tornado.
Over the weekend, theater employees and moviegoers in Moore re-lived the experience as they watched "Twisters," a movie about a fictional natural disaster that takes place in their home state.
Watching the film felt like a "celebration of the community’s strength and perseverance," said John Stephens, general manager of Regal Warren Moore.
“It re-created big Oklahoma storms on the big screens in Oklahoma," he said. “For our guests and the theater staff, this felt like our movie.”
It was a sentiment shared by many moviegoers in the state, which is part of a region in the U.S. known as "Tornado Alley."
The film, which was released in theaters Friday, "was big everywhere, but specifically in Oklahoma," said Jim Orr, president of domestic distribution for Universal Pictures, which released the film. (Universal Pictures and NBC News are part of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast.) "It generated 80% of the box office there this weekend."
In its opening weekend, it collected a massive $80.5 million from 4,151 North American theaters.
The movie, directed by Lee Isaac Chung, is a standalone sequel to the 1996 film “Twister.” Daisy Edgar-Jones plays former storm chaser Kate Cooper and Glen Powell plays a social media star named Tyler Owens, who is known as the “tornado wrangler.” The two, alongside fellow storm chaser Javi (played by Anthony Ramos), are tasked with helping tame a catastrophic outbreak of tornadoes across Oklahoma.
On TikTok, one moviegoer documented the 1½-hour wait to see the movie at a drive-in during Oklahoma's opening weekend. Some recorded themselves seeing it in the multisensory 4DX format, a screening experience that involves motion-enabled seats designed to mimic the environment of the film. Several on TikTok also used sound bites from Luke Combs' “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma," a song from the film's soundtrack, in their videos.
Oklahoma native Ryan Whitefield, 42, who attended the “Twisters” opening weekend at the Regal Warren Moore, highlighted the film’s “authenticity in depicting the ferocity and the human impact of tornadoes.”
“The film portrays not just the terrifying moments during a storm, but also the way communities come together to rebuild and support one another afterward,” he said. “This sense of solidarity and hope is something that we Oklahomans deeply identify with.”
This sense of solidarity and hope is something that we Oklahomans deeply identify with
-Ryan Whitefield, Oklahoma native and moviegoer
“Twisters” is so realistic that Whitefield said his wife, who survived the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado that killed 36 Oklahomans in May 1999, cannot watch it.
Shantel Zuber, 25, a storm chaser who was one of the film’s extras, saw “Twisters” twice during its opening weekend.
Her first viewing was in 4DX format at the Regal Warren Moore.
“We were all a little bit sore,” she said of the immersive setting. “But it was a really cool experience, it makes you feel like you’re in it.”
The filming process, which involved “screaming at a blue sky" before CGI did its magic, was disorienting for someone like Zuber, who has seen the real thing. She started storm chasing early in life, when a house was struck by lightning in her hometown of Mineral Wells, Texas, and subsequently caught on fire.
“I’m one of those people that instead of getting scared, I just find out as much information as I can,” Zuber said. “I did that and it started all this.”
Opening numbers for “Twisters” are the largest for Universal Pictures since “Oppenheimer,” which was released on the same weekend last summer and went on to win best picture at the Academy Awards.
After a slow start to this summer, many box office analysts said movie theaters were in need of another jolt.
Thousands of miles from Tornado Alley, audiences in major metropolitan cities such as Los Angeles and New York were other key contributors to the big debut of “Twisters.”
It was the highest grossing opening weekend for any film in the 4DX format, according to Orr. The Regal Times Square theater in New York City had almost $100,000 worth of grosses in just that format alone, he said.
“Twisters” is a “very true to life, exciting and immersive film,” Orr said. "It really must be seen on a big screen, with a theater packed full of folks, with all of the great visuals, the surround sound and everything that goes with it.”
I’m the newsroom coordinator for NBC News Digital and cover all things gymnastics, culture and breaking news. My past work includes coverage of Simone Biles’ road to the 2024 Paris Olympics, the death of a fan at Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” and the Vermont shooting of three Palestinian students. You can often find me live-blogging major events in pop culture like the Oscars, the Grammys and the Super Bowl.
