April Box Office — ‘Civil War’ Remains in Command, Fends Off ‘Abigail’

Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) won’t get their debut three-peat at the domestic box office. After their previous two Scream films reached number one across their respective first weekends, their Universal monster movie Abigail has fallen just shy of replicating that feat, narrowly losing out to Alex Garland‘s controversial hit Civil War. For the second week in a row, the dystopian thriller led the pack with $11.1 million, with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire remaining in the top three and continuing to pass milestones along the way. The top five, however, features entirely new blood with Guy Ritchie‘s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and the anime film Spy X Family Code: White climbing into the mix.

In addition to continuing to make waves domestically, Civil Warexpanded its reach overseas over the weekend, adding $4.5 million internationally to bring the film to $49.4 million worldwide. It will certainly cross $50 million this week and make back its reported budget, the largest for a film thus far under the A24 banner. This weekend also saw Garland’s latest rocket into the fifth spot among the highest-grossing A24 films in North America after surpassing the domestic earnings of Ari Aster‘s Hereditary. Given that the three films above aren’t that far apart, with Uncut Gems leading the pack at $50 million domestically with Lady Bird and Talk to Me close behind, we’ll likely see Civil War take a massive leap up the indie company’s leaderboard this week, putting it behind only the colossal hit Everything Everywhere All At Once, which grossed $77.1 million stateside and $144.4 million globally.

Abigail, meanwhile, fell shy of its projected $12 to $15 million to only gross $10.2 million despite strong reviews — earning a Certified Fresh rating at 84% on Rotten Tomatoes — and the sterling reputation of Radio Silence in the horror space. Still, the film seems on-pace with similar genre fare, including the filmmaking duo’s previous hit, Ready or Not. Their new vampire movie, which features Melissa Barrera, Giancarlo Esposito, Kathryn Newton, Dan Stevens, and Angus Cloud among others in a band of kidnappers tasked with watching over the titular 12-year-old terror played by Alisha Weir, also pulled in an extra $5 million from overseas markets, bringing it up to a respectable $15.2 million overall. Considering it only had a budget of $28 million, Dracula’s little girl is doing just fine and figures to keep drawing more eyes thanks to the praise.

‘Godzilla x Kong’ Continues Smashing Milestones

Though the kings of Kong and monsters have lost their crowns, the latest MonsterVerse movie still isn’t going anywhere, with another $9.4 million domestically and another $21.6 million overseas to bring it up to $485.2 million worldwide. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is hard-charging toward the $500 million mark and should pass it by the end of the week given its long tail at the box office. Bringing together kaiju movie icons – plus another appearance from Stevens – to fight for Earth has proven to be fruitful for director Adam Wingard, as his latest is now past the $300 million mark overseas and has pulled into second place domestically and third globally. Passing the first Godzilla from Gareth Edwards seems doable both in North America ($200 million) and worldwide ($530 million) but the pair still have a ways to go to conquer Kong: Skull Island‘s $560 million global mark.

Rounding out the top five, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare scored a middling $9 million in its domestic opening, while the Forger family brought in $4.8 million in their North American debut with Spy X Family Code: White, bringing its worldwide total to $51.3 million. Although its best days at the box office are well behind it, Dune: Part Two continues creeping closer to the $700 million milestone as well, currently sitting at $695 million. Next weekend will see two more heavyweights enter the mix, with the Bill Skarsgård-led Boy Kills World bringing the action and Luca Guadagnino‘s Challengers bringing Zendaya back to theaters in steamy style.

Stay tuned here at Collider for future box office updates.

Civil War

The film follows events in the U.S. during a civil war. Government forces attack civilians. Journalists are shot in the Capitol.

Release Date

April 12, 2024

Director

Alex Garland

Main Genre

Drama

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