"Aliens" began a wide North American release on July18, 1986. During its opening weekend, the film earned $10.1million from 1,437 theaters—an average of $6,995 per theater. It was the weekend's number-one film, ahead of the martial-arts drama "The Karate Kid Part II" ($5.6million in its fifth weekend) and the black comedy "Ruthless People" ($4.5million in its fourth weekend). Based on its opening-five-day total ($13.4million), "Aliens" was anticipated to become the summer's top film and surpass "The Karate Kid Part II", "Back to School" and "Top Gun". These early figures exceeded Fox's expectations. The "Los Angeles Times" reported long lines at theatres, even on weekday afternoons.