Civil War Has Set A New Weekend Box Office Record For A24

In the last decade, A24 has earned a terrific reputation when it comes to releasing quality films, but the company is not exactly known for putting out box office hits. Only one title from the catalogue, Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All At Once, has earned over $100 million at the global box office, and the biggest opening weekend hit domestically prior to this year was Ari Aster‘s Hereditary, which debuted in fourth place and made $13.6 million when it made its theatrical debut in 2018.

Now, Alex Garland’s Civil War has arrived, and it has fittingly made history for the indie distribution company. In addition to being the first film from A24 to make its debut in first place, the new movie has set a new in-house record for opening weekend ticket sales. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.

Civil War Is On Its Way To Being A24’s Biggest Hit Yet

Civil War has been a buzzy title for months now. It first got a lot of attention back in December when the first trailer arrived online, and heat only grew for the film following its premiere at the SXSW Film Festival – which saw reactions that called it “scary as hell.” The chatter has clearly been making people curious, and the end result of that curiosity is a record-breaking opening weekend.

A $25.7 million start (via The Numbers) is only big enough for Civil War to claim the seventh hottest opening for a new 2024 movie – the feature now sitting behind Reinaldo Marcus-Green’s Bob Marley: One Love ($28.7 million) and Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr.’s Mean Girls ($28.6 million) – but it’s obviously a big deal for A24. That revenue is nearly double what Hereditary made in its first three days, and the title is now well on its way to being a box office success. Per Deadline, the production had a $50 million budget and $20 million was spent on marketing costs.

To further contextualize just how big a win this is for A24, one need only to look at where it sits in the studio’s box office history after just three days. Ticket sales from foreign markets haven’t been reported yet, but already the film is the tenth biggest worldwide hit from the company – having bumped David Lowery‘s The Green Knight from that position (it made $20 million from its full theatrical run in 2021). It will only need to make another $5 million to outgross Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla from last year (both movies just so happen to star young actress Cailee Spaeny), and it’s about $15 million away from taking eighth place from Robert Eggers’ The Witch.

In addition to being a big win for the studio, it’s also the biggest box office success for Alex Garland as a director. His phenomenal sci-fi wonder Annihilation from 2018 was his previous best opening weekend performer, having made $11.1 million when it debuted), as neither 2015’s Ex Machina ($237,264) nor 2022’s Men ($3.3 million) set the world on fire when they first premiered.

As far as the long-term is concerned, it will be an interesting title to watch given some divisive responses. The intense anti-war film has been hailed by critics, CinemaBlend’s Mike Reyes delivering a five-star review, and  it’s now sporting a 83 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The Audience Score is only trailing slightly behind on the aggregation site at 77 percent, and surveys distributed by CinemaScore returned a “B-” grade. What this will lead to in its second weekend is unclear: those results don’t necessary suggest that movie-goers are going to go tell all their friends and family members that the release is a must-see, but there has been enough discourse surrounding the title that people may check it out in its second weekend to be a part of the conversation about it.

It is worth noting that unlike the major Hollywood studios, A24 doesn’t typically rush titles to the digital/home video market, so if you haven’t seen Civil War yet and have the desire to do so, you should make a point of heading to your local theater (and it’s a movie that is best experienced on a massive screen with a deluxe speaker system). 

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Crosses $150 Million Domestically And Is Nearing $450 Million Worldwide

With Civil War being A24’s first #1 opening weekend hit, Adam Wingard‘s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire got pushed down to second place – but at this point, the blockbuster kaiju film has made more than enough to register as a success. It wasn’t cheap to make, with Variety reporting a $150 million production budget earlier this month, but the film has now made that money back domestically – with ticket sales from the United States and Canada now sitting at $157.9 million. 

It’s the third biggest hit in the region thus far in 2024, sitting behind only Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune: Part Two ($272.1 million) and Mike Mitchell’s Kung Fu Panda 4 ($173.7 million) – which, as you can still in the chart, are still drawing people to theaters. That’s great… but it’s also worth noting that the action film has only done about a third of its business domestically; it’s a much bigger hit overseas.

Worldwide, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has grossed $436.5 million, which means that it is now just about $14 million away from outgrossing Adam Wingard’s Godzilla vs. Kong from 2021 and becoming the third biggest success in the decade-long history of Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse. It will have to make a lot more money to further climb up the ranks in franchise thanks to the half-billion dollar successes that were Gareth Edwards‘ Godzilla from 2014 (which made $529.1 million during its global run) and Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ Kong: Skull Island ($561.1 million).

How will the Top 10 change next week with the arrival of both Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet’s Abigail? To find out, be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday for our latest box office report.