Twister Was Released 30 Years Ago Today and Broke the Box Office
30 years ago today, one of the best disaster movies of all time blew into theaters like an F5 tornado.
That's right, we're talking about Twister.
Starring the late, great Bill Paxton and Mad About You's Helen Hunt, the film follows a team of storm chasers as they track a deadly storm system through Oklahoma. Their goal: to release high-tech weather sensors into the center of a tornado via a device called "Dorothy," in the hope that data from them could lead to earlier warnings for people living in Tornado Alley.
They also do their best to avoid flying cows in the process.
Twister Was a Massive Box Office Success
Twister came from a script by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton and his wife, Anne-Marie Martin. With Steven Spielberg as one of its producers, the movie was directed by Jan de Bont, fresh off the success of another action flick, 1994's Speed.
While Speed was a box office smash, grossing $350.4 million, Twister performed even better when it was released in theaters on May 10, 1996. The disaster flick made $41.1 million in its opening weekend, topping the box office, and went on to make more than $499 million against a $90 million budget.
It wound up being the second-highest-grossing movie of the year, coming in behind Independence Day. The movie's box office topped other major 1996 releases, including the first Mission: Impossible, The Rock, The Nutty Professor, and Ransom.
The movie did alright critically, too, though most of the love went to the special effects team. It currently sits at 68% on Rotten Tomatoes.
"Twister delivers (in spades) what it intends while never aspiring to be anything more than a rollercoaster ride. If you don't expect golden memories, you'll get plenty of thrills," wrote the Guardian.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal wrote that while "Twister shows how digital technology has transformed special effects," they also called it "a movie that dispenses lots of thrills--big ones, loud ones--while dispensing with smart."
In their review, Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a "B" grade, adding, "The tornado-whipped cows, houses, and tractor-trailers are a tribute to the kids in the special-effects room."
Twister's Lasting Legacy
Twister is credited with being one of the first blockbusters to make bank in early May, at a time when Memorial Day was the big opening weekend of summer. In fact, Twister surpassed the box office of the 1996 Memorial Day release, Mission: Impossible.
After Twister's success, that early May weekend would only continue to build momentum in the years to come. According to Box Office Mojo, Deep Impact and The Mummy performed similarly that same weekend in 1998 and 1999, before The Mummy Returns and Spider-Man blew those out of the water in 2001 and 2002.
The movie is also credited with helping revive the disaster flick, with movies like Independence Day, Dante's Peak, Volcano, Deep Impact,Armageddon, and even Titanic all dropping in its wake.
In 2024, Time magazine named it the #4 Best Disaster Movie of All Time, behind 2012, Titanic, and Armageddon. That same year, The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, ranked it #3, behind The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno.
A Twister Sequel
Despite its success, it would take 28 years for someone to make a sequel.
While Paxton died in 2017, Hunt revealed during a Watch What Happens Live appearance in 2021 that she was trying to make a follow-up.
"I tried to get it made," she shared at the time. "With Daveed [Diggs] and Rafael [Casal] and me writing it, and all Black and brown storm chasers, and they wouldn't do it. I was going to direct it… We could barely get a meeting, and this is in June of 2020 when it was all about diversity. It would have been so cool."
"There was a HBCU [historically Black college and university] where we wanted it to take place, and a rocket science club," she added. "In this one, they shoot the rockets into the tornado. It was going to be so cool."
That, however, never materialized.
Instead, a sequel starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, and Sasha Lane was released in 2024. While the movie didn't feature any returning cast members, Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung confirmed it was set in the same world as the original and includes a newer version of the "Dorothy" device.
Paxton's real-life son, James Paxton, also makes a cameo.
Twister is streaming now on HBO Max, while Twisters can be streamed on Peacock.
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 10, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published May 10, 2026 at 11:42 AM.