FRIDAY PM: “Great number,” heralds one rival distributor about the weekend results for A24‘s Civil War which will easily become the studio’s biggest opening of all-time at $23M-$25M after $10M Friday/previews at 3,838 theaters. That beats the $13.5M start of Ari Aster’s 2018 movie Hereditary.
It’s an impressive result for a movie which is set against the backsplash of a divided U.S., something that hits extremely too close to home. While Blue State audiences will clearly hear the gong that this movie is sounding through the eyes of war photojournalists, will Red State moviegoers be stoked as well? We shall see. Whatever your views, Act 2 and Act 3 payoff in Imax.
Says News Corp. owned New York Post critic Johnny Oleksinski, “Garland’s movie is no more vital to the discourse than “The Purge,” and is about 1% as entertaining.”
Social media monitor RelishMix, which measured a social media universe north of 101M across TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, reports: “Convo on Civil War runs mixed, like the film itself. Audiences are divided on their feelings towards A24’s most expensive film yet. At the forefront, fans are highly anticipating the next thriller from director Alex Garland: ‘If you look at Garland’s past work, you know this has the potential to be a damn good movie.’ Another spectator adds ‘This is going to be so intense, and I’m so excited it’s in IMAX! Hell yeah, Alex Garland!’ Others are excited about A24 dipping its toes further into the action genre after fan favorite Everything, Everywhere All At Once: ‘I think A24 is my new favorite production studio. This doesn’t look like a typical, big studio, cookie-cutter war pic.’ But those on the opposing side feel the film is stepping into dangerously ‘too close to real life’ territory for them to enjoy it: ‘Why pay money when I can see the real thing for free?’ Others feel the film is too divisive to be entertaining in our current political landscape, ‘Hollywood really thought this was a good idea right now?’”
What’s really cool about A24 is that like HBO, their brand alone can draw a solid portion of their weekend business; even if their fans don’t know anything about the filmmaker or movie (aka ‘A24 core’). I’m told that the portion of A24 die-hards who show up varies per movie.
In second place is Legendary/Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire which will roar to a third weekend between $14M-$15M (-54%) after a $3.6M Friday (-57%) at 3,847 theaters. That will get the Monsterverse movie to $157.4M by Sunday. That means New Empire has defeated the domestic results of 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong ($100.9M), 2019’s Godzilla King of the Monsters ($110.5M), and its $10.6M away from taking over Kong: Skull Island ($168M domestic).
Third belongs to the fourth weekend of Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire at 3,350 theaters with a Friday of $1.2M, 3-day of $4.6M, -49% and a running total by Sunday EOD of $95.8M.
Fourth and fifth belong to Universal with Monkey Man‘s second weekend of $4.5M, -56% after a Friday of $1.3M. That will get Dav Patel’s directorial debut to $18.1M at 3,037 venues.
Then there’s the studio’s DreamWorks Animation Kung Fu Panda 4 with a sixth weekend of $4.4M, -43%, for a running total of $172.9M after a Friday of $1.1M. The fourthquel past the sequel, Kung Fu Panda 2, last weekend ($165.2M).
FRIDAY AM: A24’s Alex Garland political thriller, Civil War, is off to a solid start with $2.9M in Thursday previews at 2,931 locations, the movie on its way to $20M+ opening. That is the best ever in previews for an A24 movie, more than double Hereditary…
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