Box Office

‘Civil War’ Takes Best Ever Opening for A24 at the BO!!

A24 is calling Civil War at a $25.7M opening, largely fueled by Democrat and Liberal moviegoers, but with overperforming business in some Red state regions like the South and Southwest.

Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak polled Civil War attendees’ politics reporting that 22% considered themselves Liberal, 19% were Democrats, 11% considered themselves moderate, whereas registered Republicans (6%), Evangelical Christians (6%) and politically conservative folks (5%) showed up as a minority.

The markets that overperformed were L.A., San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Austin, Navy hub San Diego, and conservative market Denver. But then there were these smaller regional markets that rallied, including El Paso and Waco, Texas, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Charlottesville, Virginia. As we told you, South, South Central, and West were the best regions for the A24 release, which follows journalists chronicling a divided, violent America.

Rival studios concur with A24’s projection for the Alex Garland movie this AM, which is both the biggest opening ever for the filmmaker (previous being 2018’s Annihilation at $11M) and the NYC-based studio. This is after an $8.76M Saturday, which was +11% from Friday’s pure $7.9M (that doesn’t count $2.9M) previews, a very good result. Many are impressed with how A24 got this divided movie across the finish line with a great result. However, I’m told they did spend on P&A on their most expensive movie of all-time, which cost more than $50M, with around $20M+ in marketing.

The comps here are old, but the opening for Civil War beats other nation-in-peril political thrillers, including the wide break of Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty ($24.4M), Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center ($18.7M opening), and going way back, Edward Zwick’s 1998 martial law NYC movie, The Siege ($13.9M) — all unadjusted for inflation.

Some rivals snipe that the movie is frontloaded. We shall see: A24 is expected to keep a sizeable portion of PLFs and Imax, and these pics do a 3-3.5x multiple at the box office. Four hundred Imax auditoriums rang up $4.2M of Civil War‘s weekend, or 16.5% of the overall opening. In leading up to the release, Imax did a re-release of Garland’s Ex-Machina, with a first look at Civil War. Overall, PLF and Imax repped close to half of the weekend’s money. AMC Lincoln Square NYC, Civil War‘s top-grossing location, is now at $130K.

PostTrak also shows that there was indeed walk-up business, with 64% of Civil War‘s moviegoers buying tickets same day. Of those buying tickets, 27% identified as frequent moviegoers buying tickets on opening weekend. Some 46% of those said they attended due to the subject matter/plot, whereas 39% citied the genre, and 31% said ‘It looked fun and entertaining’. Only 17% bought tickets because of the cast. Interesting stat: 48% of those who watched Civil War are curious about a sequel.

Moving the needle in regards to marketing was Kirsten Dunst’s presence across social media, the actress counting 2.9M followers, per RelishMix. In addition to pushing Civil War, the actress took female fans down memory lane on Kelly Clarkson, regaling Bring It On and Spider-Man.

 

In addition to the SXSW world premiere, which fueled positive reviews, A24 held L.A. and NYC special screenings with influencers across entertainment, media, and politics. The L.A. premiere saw Rian Johnson and Edgar Wright attending, with the latter tweeting:

On social, A24 did a “What Kind of American Are You?” Green Toy Soldier Generator:

There was also a big splash for Civil War in Times Square:

Despite the great business for a movie like Civil War, the overall marketplace at $77.4M still dragged behind last year’s Super Mario Bros mojo at -48%, but was only behind 2019’s same April weekend at -31%.

The chart:

1.) Civil War (A24) 3,838 theaters, Fri $10.8M, Sat $8.7M, Sun $6.1M, 3-day $25.7M/Wk 1

2.) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Leg/WB) 3,847 (-101) theaters, Fri $3.9M Sat $7M Sun $4.55M 3-day $15.4M (-50%)/Total $157.9M/ Wk 3

3.) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Sony) 3,350 (-485) theaters, Fri $1.4M Sat $2.7M Sun $1.7M 3-day $5.8M (-36%), Total $96.9M/Wk 4

4.) Kung Fu Panda 4 (Uni/DWA) 3,104 (-294) theaters, Fri $1.37M Sat $2.5M Sun $1.55M, 3-day $5.5M (-29%), Total $173.6M/Wk 6

5.) Dune: Part Two (Leg/WB) 2,401 theaters (-435), Fri $1.1M Sat $1.9M Sun $1.2M, 3-day $4.32M (-42%)/Total $272.1M/Wk 7

6.) Monkey Man (Uni) 3,037 (+8) theaters, Fri $1.27M, Sat $1.7M, Sun $1.1M, 3-day $4.1M (-59%), Total $17.7M/Wk 2

7.) The First Omen (20th/Dis) 3375 theaters, Fri $1.15M Sat $1.6M Sun $1M, 3-day $3.78M (-54%), Total $14.6M Wk 2

8.) The Long Game (Mucho) 1030 theaters, Fri $638K Sat $385K Sun $367K 3-day $1.39M /Wk 1

9.) Shrek 2 (re) (Uni) 1,512 theaters, Fri $480K, Sat $530K, Sun $340K, 3-day $1.35M/Wk 1

10.) Suga Agust D Tour ‘D-day’ (Traf) 787 theaters, Sat $990,8K, 3-day $990,8K, Total $2.2M/Wk 1

via Deadline

Leave a Reply