Globally, it’s already the seventh-biggest A24 film in history.
The Big Picture
-
Civil War
, directed by Alex Garland, has quickly recouped its $50 million budget, becoming A24’s seventh-highest grossing film globally. - The movie, following war journalists in a conflict-ridden U.S., has received positive reviews and achieved box office success both domestically and overseas.
- With a growing global audience,
Civil War
aims to surpass other A24 hits like Moonlight and become one of the studio’s top-grossing films ever.
Writer-director Alex Garland’s latest film, Civil War, is properly capitalizing on its divisive subject-matter. In just 10 days at the box office, the film has managed to recover its reported budget of $50 million — a record for the indie outfit A24. The film broke opening weekend records for the studio, which is making inroads in the mid-budget zone after a decade delivering buzzy, small-budget genre films. A24 ended this era by winning its first-ever Academy Award for Best Picture, for Everything Everywhere All at Once, which remains its highest-grossing movie, both domestically and worldwide.
Civil War aims to unseat it from this pedestal. The movie has grossed $44.8 million domestically so far, and another $6.2 million from overseas markets, for a cumulative global haul of $51 million. Civil Wardebuted with a record $25 million domestically, and followed it up with $11 million in its second weekend — topping the domestic box office charts on both occasions. It’s still early days for the movie in international markets, where A24 has reportedly sold off distribution rights, making box office tracking irregular.
The film’s top-grossing overseas market so far is Garland’s home country of the U.K., where it has generated $2.2 million. Civil War follows a group of war journalists on a journey to Washington D.C. while armed factions engage in conflict with each other across the country. The protagonists intend to cover a brewing plan to overthrow the dictatorial president. Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura play long-time colleagues, while Cailee Spaeny and Stephen McKinley Henderson’s characters tag along with them on the perilous cross-country journey.
Where Does ‘Civil War’ Rank Among A24 Movies?
With $51 million in the bank so far globally, Civil War is the seventh-biggest film in A24’s history. In the next few days, it’ll overtake the $54 million lifetime global haul of Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, and by next weekend, it should be able to overtake the $65 million lifetime haul generated by the Oscar-winning drama, Moonlight. Civil War will then trail only Lady Bird, Hereditary, Talk to Me and Everything Everywhere All at Once. Domestically, the movie recently overtook Hereditary to become A24’s fifth-biggest release ever. It’s only around $6 million shy of becoming the studio’s second-biggest movie domestically, ahead of Uncut Gems.
Reviews have been positive, with Collider’s Matt Donato calling it Garland’s best film. Civil War has an 81% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a B- CinemaScore from opening day audiences. You can watch the movie in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Civil War
The film follows events in the U.S. during a civil war. Government forces attack civilians. Journalists are shot in the Capitol.
- Release Date
- April 12, 2024
- Director
- Alex Garland
- Cast
- Nick Offerman , Kirsten Dunst , Cailee Spaeny , Wagner Moura , Sonoya Mizuno , Jefferson White
This article was originally published on collider.com