According to several film outlets, A24 Pictures wants to evolve from a low-budget, indie film distributor into an entertainment company that puts out summer blockbusters.
Alex Garland's Civil War seems to be a step in the right direction as the film opened to $25.7 million domestically, while adding another $4.3 million from 17 international territories, for a $30 million global debut.
The film reportedly has a $50 million production budget, meaning its break-even number for the studio is somewhere in the neighborhood of $140 million when accounting for P&A costs and revenue split with theater owners.
Civil War has a rolling international release schedule as 16 more territories are awaiting the film's premiere, following its North American release.
While the domestic numbers are a record for A24, it's still a little too early to tell if the film will be a financial success for the studio. The film's specific correlation to U.S. politics might also make it difficult for it to resonate with overseas moviegoers.
While Civil War was the #1 movie in North America, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire still managed to have the higher global weekend, bringing in $49.2 million worldwide.
Civil War is set in a near-future America that has broken apart into several groups which are engaged in a civil war.
Days from now, the capital of the Western Forces, an armed coalition of states that are insurgent against the federal authority, will be forced to submit.
With a small group of journalists, including a young, aspiring photographer named Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), whom she reluctantly takes on the role of mentor, Lee (Kirsten Dunst), a hardened combat photographer who has documented atrocities and destabilization around the world, travels to the White House in the hopes of securing a final interview with the president (Nick Offerman).
“This movie feels like a fable to me — like a cautionary fable of what happens when people don’t communicate with each other,” Dunst shared. “When nobody listens to each other, when you silence journalists, when we lose a shared truth."
Garland also added, "The famous phrase, if you forget history, you're doomed to repeat it — it's important to understand that nobody is immune. No country is immune from that. Because it's nothing to do with countries, it's to do with people.”
Garland continued by saying that he intended Civil War to be a resolutely anti-war movie, one in which the suspense keeps you on the edge of your seat but is ultimately driven by raw horror as opposed to sensationalized thrills.
The film currently has a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 85 reviews, with an average score of 7.8 out of 10.
ABOUT CIVIL WAR: From filmmaker Alex Garland comes a journey across a dystopian future America, following a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House.