‘Civil War’ Takes Box Office Spoils With $25.7M Opening, Best Ever For A24

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.”

SATURDAY AM: Civil War is staying strong with A24 reporting a $10.8M Friday. Rivals’ estimates are wild from $24M-$27M. As we previously wrote, that’s a slam dunk opening record for A24.

Here’s the good news: No one is expecting the movie to greatly crater at this point with a spike on Saturday +18% to +20% (vs. Friday less $2.9M previews), this despite a B- CinemaScore and 76% positive on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak (53% definite recommend), which indicates that crowds are split. Some do have their concerns that the Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman and Wagner Moura movie is frontloaded.

41% left, 11% moderate, 17% right. Who are the other 30%?

SUNDAY AM: 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.