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Alex Garland’s latest film, Civil War, was released in theaters this past weekend and it made enough money to set the record for the biggest opening weekend ever for film company A24.
The movie earned $25.7 million in North America this weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It carried a production budget of $50 million and is A24’s most expensive film yet, and this doesn’t cover any marketing and promotional expenses.
A24 is better known for relatively lower-budget films like the Oscar-winning Moonlight, Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age story Lady Bird, Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, Uncut Gems starring Adam Sandler, and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, among many others.
A24’s horror movie Hereditary, which was released in 2018, appears to be the company’s previous record-holder for biggest opening weekend in North America ($13.5 million).
Civil War stars Kirsten Dunst as a photojournalist making her way through a divided America that’s in the midst of a second civil war. Nick Offerman stars as the president, with a cast that also includes Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, and Jesse Plemons.
GameSpot’s Civil War review scored the film a 9/10. Reviewer Phil Owen said, “Civil War will work best as an experiential thing, like an atrocity-filled theme park ride that’s a bit more dense than your average Purge flick while still hitting some of the same sweet spots that those movies did.”
As for Garland, he’s known for directing the movies Ex Machina, Annihilation, and Men, in addition to the TV series Devs. Now that Civil War is out, he plans to stop directing movies and instead write films for other people to direct.
