Americans Actually Did Want to See Civil War
Citizens were curious about what a near-future Civil War in America would look like, it turns out. Alex Garland’s film about war journalists on a road trip through a war torn Eastern seaboard did not bomb at the box office, though presumably bombs went off on screens in the theater. Instead, it blasted to the top of the domestic box office with $25.7 million, making it A24’s biggest opening ever, per The Hollywood Reporter. Civil War was made with a production budget of $50 million, the bespoke studio’s most expensive film to date, and that doesn’t even account for how many millions it spent on marketing the film. It stars Kirsten Dunst as intrepid, desensitized war photographer documenting the tail end of the conflict with her colleagues, played by Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Cailee Spaeny. Nick Offerman is the three-term authoritarian despot who tore the country apart. Confusion surrounding the film’s opaque politics and opening during a tumultuous election season could have scared audiences away, but it appears domestic viewers might have been pulled in by the discourse. According to the Hollywood Reporter, 73% of the audience was male. Men did not embarrass Garland … this time.
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