Civil War is A24’s biggest movie launch ever
Alex Garland's new provocation has just trumped Hereditary as the small studio's biggest opening to date
Aux News A24
Although film company A24 has built up a pretty remarkable reputation for itself over its 12 years of existence—winning 16 Oscars, including the sweep executed by Everything Everywhere All At Once last year—it’s still pretty niche, as far as money-making goes. (Even EEAAO only ended up clearing $144 million at the global box office, despite what could be roughly described as the maximum amount of word of mouth possible.) Now, though, the studio is set to have its biggest opening weekend since it, well, opened, with Deadline reporting that Alex Garland’s provocative new thriller Civil War will bring in at least $24 million, and possibly more, this weekend.
Again, this is kind of small-ball when compared to the blockbuster side of the Hollywood street, where “Big Monster Punches Other, Bigger Monster” film Godzilla X Kong is currently expected to hit a total of $157 million this weekend. But it’s extremely good for A24, whose previous opening was 2018's Hereditary, which opened at $13.5 million. And it’ll be enough to beat Godzilla and Kong for at least this particular weekend, since that film has been in theaters for two weeks at this point.
Civil War has garnered relatively strong reviews for its efforts to tell a story about the United States violently turning against itself, as well as performances from acting power couple Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons. (Although the negative criticism, including that aimed at Garland’s efforts to deliberately de-politicize and genericize the conflict depicted in the film, has been pointed.) Released in the run-up to a national election it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell ourselves is just some sort of awful mass hallucination, it’s clearly riding the zeitgeist in a way that’s helping A24 gain a bit more of a toehold in the American movie market.
23 Comments
All for a movie with the daring message that The Man doesn’t want you to hear, “War is bad, huh?”.
And if you want to see what Civil War will lead to, check out “Fallout” on Prime Video…War never changes…
Hey now, let’s give the movie’s message a little more credit: “War’s bad when it’s on your doorstep, innit?”
*shrugs, stubs out cigarette, drone strikes another Afghan wedding*
Obama? Is that you?
How very dare you suggest I own a tan suit.
Maybe your very high-IQ dismissal would be a little more persuasive if we didn’t live in a world were there are literally multibillion franchises in all media dedicated to the message “war is cool”. Even most supposedly ‘anti-war’ movies actually have a message more like “war is regrettable but necessary, and with courage and sacrifice the good guys will always win.”Those aren’t necessarily stories we should stop telling. But we’re a long way from saturation on stories that highlight that, yes, actually, war is bad.
Hell if you promise to make the US armed forces look good those fuckers will give you free access to troops and equipment to film. Remember that every time you watch a Michael Bay movie because that studio making millions is being partially funded by your tax dollars(assuming you are an American). It’s fucking bullshit.
And that’s why Iron Eagle had to go to Israel for its F-16s.
Not every movie has to reinvent the wheel. This was more spectacle than anything, but highly enjoyable and well made spectacle
White boy fantasy bullshit. Cause that’s the ONLY people who desperately want a race war do-over.
There isn’t a race war in this film. Civil Wars can be about anything. It just means a country fighting itself
This WAS the man who wrote The Beach after all.
Race was really not a big part of the movie, or the war in it, aside from a horrific Jesse Plemons pit stop
Very minor spoiler:***The fact that the young woman in the movie uses a film camera and shoots in black and white made it really hard for me not to hate her.
The black and white picture will look better splashed on the screen during letter readings in the inevitable Cyber-Ken Burns 2099 documentary, the Civil War 2
“My Dearest Ashleigh…”
Loved the movie, but totally understand the B- CinemaScore as many moviegoers around me were mumbling during the quiet parts — they were not ready for the slow sections — and talking about how they thought it was boring when it was over.Audiences want Rambo, I guess.
Probably also expecting more Nick Offerman.
Yeah you’re not wrong. He was in the trailer as much as the movie basically.
Slow sections were superb. Lee and Sammy on the couch looking at the firefights at night, Lee and Jesse in the stadium stands, really anything with Kirsten Dunst.
My issue wasn’t with the pace or the “slow” parts but how most of the action is a result of the characters acting in completely stupid and illogical ways. What the hell was up with that jumping between cars scene?
Real sick of all the hot takes from people who haven’t seen it. Reminds me of the buzz around Joker. Both times the movie wasn’t what people were freaking out about it being (or not being). Difference is this one’s a masterpiece. Just go see it, it’s a movie… It’s not supposed to fix American politics any more than any other movie is. It deserves to be appreciated in its own right, first, and second I don’t really mind that it isn’t lining up with the partisan cliches we’re already saturated with. It should be provocative and uncomfortable, even if a lot of people were always going to miss the point.