Holy cow, A24 could show up and tear down business in a time where the red state/blue state rift plays out impending in an election year. Their latest dystopian thriller, Civil War, took in $25.71 million in its North American debut, something to qualify as a situational triumph as demographics stepped away from “oh look, another IP tentpole for grabs in cinemas for us to watch.” Positive reviews, “decent” word-of-mouth with a B- from CinemaScore, and a different event feature allowed A24 to showcase the apolitical nod to sacrifices of wartime photojournalism. Heck, even with no star power attached (it’s a lifetime ago when Kirsten Dunst was treated as your mainstream performer), it does stand as a film representative of the current times. It’s almost double that of Hereditary‘s opening ($13.5 million in 2018), and could easily pass Uncut Gems to become the second-highest earning grosser behind Everything Everywhere All At Once (barring any collapse).
Oh, and speaking of originality, Civil War‘s opening is one of only eight original (non-IP-related or not based on any existing material) films to open past $25 million domestically since COVID, and the 2nd-highest for an R-rated feature (behind Nope‘s $44.3 million in 2022). Talk about a resurgence of box office times when most January and February launches stumbled out of the gate (sorry, Argylle).
In other news, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has passed $150 million domestically and $100 million in China (the latter number being a rarity in post-COVID times). Legendary/Warner Brothers’ latest MonsterVerse feature should be passing Kong: Skull Island‘s $168 million domestic mark by next weekend as it fights toward $200 million domestic. While there is no guarantee, Godzilla x Kong has already passed $435 million globally and should easily take the cake for passing $500 million; how this series has revived its with kaiju action when we thought the seeds for its demise were planted five years ago (thanks to King of the Monster‘s underperformance).
Ghostbusters: The Frozen Empire earned $5.8 million in its fourth weekend, meaning it’ll just get past $100 million domestic later this week. It is a good enough tally, although lower than its two immediate predecessors in 2016 and 2021, and another sign this franchise only collects when it distributes in North America. Does it support another one? Sony should likely settle for an injunction before they burn this series out.
Kung Fu Panda 4 keeps legging like a champ thanks to the kid-friendly demo in its favor and has passed $450 million globally. It should be getting past $500 million sometime by the last weekend of the month, an excellent precursor before John Krasinski’s IF jumps into theaters in May. Dune: Part Two keeps legging along nicely as it started its release on PVOD, and it should be passing $700 million globally before the month concludes.
Monkey Man got struck with a 59% drop in its second weekend, earning $4.1 million. It has passed $22 million globally (for a $10 million budgeted film that Jordan Peele’s MonkeyPaw Productions picked up), so Universal can see this as a relatively small win for them. It also affirms that Dev Patel’s inspiration would never be the next John Wick/Atomic Blonde franchise starter. However, Mr. Patel will net more victories after this, and some other good news headed his way about directing further blockbusters. The First Omen will keep tanking and has only passed $35 million on a $30 million budget. Newcomer The Long Game opened with $1.39 million, and Shrek 2 returned to theaters (to celebrate twenty years) for a measly $1.35 million to add to its worldwide gross of $936 million.
Next weekend sees the release of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Abigail, We Grown Now, Stress Positons, Blood for Dust, and Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver (on Netflix).
