'Civil War' Wins Another Weekend
by EG
The new horror release Abigail has its sights on the top spot on the weekend box office chart, but the staying power of last week's top movie, Civil War, was too much to overcome. Civil War saw a sizeable drop in ticket sales in its second weekend, but the movie's take was still enough to stay ahead of Abigail, which performed a bit behind expectations. Neither film did well enough to turn around the sleepy state of the box office, with ticket sales for 2024 to date falling 20% behind revenues from the same point in 2023. Read on for details.
Alex Garland’s dystopian political action film Civil War about an America torn apart triumphed over new vampire pic Abigail at the weekend box office.
Civil War held in well to stay No. 1 in its second weekend with $11 million for a healthy domestic total of $45 million for indie studio A24. The film has succeeded in uniting both blue states and red states.
Heading into the weekend, Universal’s Abigail was expected to take a bigger bite out of Civil War but instead opened to $10.2 million. That’s still a respectable number for a studio film that cost a modest $28 million to make before marketing.
Horror often struggles overseas, where Abigail only took in $5 million from 62 markets for a global start of $15.2 million,
Abigail is from Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the directing duo known as Radio Silence who were behind the reboot of the Scream franchise and the horror hit Ready or Not. Their new movie, written by Stephen Shields, follows the horrors that happen when a group of criminals kidnap a 12-year-old who is the daughter of an underworld figure. The only problem: The young ballerina is a vampire.
Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire remained a force to be reckoned with in its fourth weekend, earning another $9.8 million to place No. 2 as it stomped past the $170 million mark domestically and a huge $485.2 million globally, including a mighty $119 million in China. And don’t forget about Legendary and Warners’ Dune: Part Two, which is on the cusp of crossing $700 million at the global box office.
Guy Ritchie‘s new movie The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare wasn’t too far behind, with an opening of $9 million. The ensemble film, whose cast includes Henry Cavill, chronicles a covert World War II mission manned by a band of renegades who are tasked with destroying Nazi U-boats (it’s loosely based on real events). The Lionsgate film boasts an A- CinemaScore.
Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s hit family film Kung Fu Panda 4, now in its seventh outing, and Sony/Crunchyroll’s new anime offering Spy × Family Code: White were in a close race for No. 4, but the latter prevailed with a strong opening of $4.9 million.
Spy x Family Code, which continues a winning streak for Japanese anime, is a spy-action comedy based on the shōnen manga series Spy × Family by Tatsuya Endo.
Kung Fu Panda 4 placed No. 5 with $4.6 million for a dazzling domestic tally of $179.9 million. Overseas, it celebrated crossing $300 million for a global cume of $480.3 million.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.