Weekend Box Office: Civil War sets a record for A24 with $25 million plus opening

Alex Garland’s Civil War performed close to our expectations this weekend, grossing an estimated $25.7 million (via ComScore’s early numbers) to post what’s easily A24’s biggest opening weekend ever. In fact, it isn’t even close, with Alex Garland’s speculative film almost doubling the previous record holder, Hereditary, which opened with $13.6 million. This is quite a coup for what’s being billed as the studio’s biggest-budget movie ever, which is a still modest $50 million. Given the rave reviews and the fact that it will likely become a water-cooler film, one can expect the film to hold up relatively well over the next few weeks, with it is unlikely anything next weekend is going to over-index unless horror flick Abigail winds up becoming a smash.

Meanwhile, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire dropped a relatively modest 50% in week two to post a $15.4 million weekend, for a $157.9 million total. It will easily top $200 million at the domestic box office, making this a huge hit for Legendary’s MonsterVerse (check out our rankings here). However, the picture was less rosy for last weekend’s two holdovers, Monkey Man and The First Omen, which were overtaken by Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Dune: Part Two. Monkey Man fell 59% to a $4.1 million weekend, which landed it in sixth place for a $17.7 million total. While it won’t be a huge money maker for Universal, it likely will eke out a profit, as it was acquired for a modest $10 million. Disney/ 20th Century Studios’ The First Omen lost 55% of its audience following its underwhelming opening for a $3.78 million weekend, with its total only $14 million so far. Getting to $20 million might be tough for this well-reviewed prequel.

In happier news, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has come back from the dead a bit at the box office, with it moving up to an unexpected third-place finish with a $5.8 million weekend. It’s pretty close to crossing the $100 million domestic mark, although whether or not that’s enough for Sony to greenlight another movie in the franchise remains to be seen. Despite already being on home media, Kung Fu Panda 4 continued to draw in family audiences, making $5.5 million for a $173 million total. Dune: Part Two’s blockbuster run continued, moving to fifth place with a $4.3 million weekend and a $272 million domestic haul. 

Meanwhile, the Dennis Quaid-led Christian sports film, The Long Game, opened with $1.39 million, with it almost being overtaken by a re-release of the Dreamworks classic, Shrek 2, which made $1.35 million. Finally, the top 10 was rounded out by South Korean rapper SUGA’s concert film, which made $999k for a total of $2.2 million (it opened on Wednesday).

Next weekend sees the release of two new genre entries, Guy Ritchie’s The League of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and Radio Silence’s horror flick, Abigail. Which one do you think will top the box office? Let us know in the comments!