As of Sunday, independent film production company A24’s latest disaster action epic “Empire’s Havoc: American Civil War” topped the North American box office for its opening weekend, setting a new record for the company’s highest premiere box office, nearly double the previous record.
According to Box Office Mojo, “Empire’s Havoc: American Civil War” premiered in 3,838 theaters with impressive performance, grossing $25.7 million in North America. The previous highest A24 premiere box office of $13.57 million was set by “Hereditary” in 2018. However, the R-rated film “Empire’s Havoc: American Civil War” is also A24’s most expensive movie, with a production budget of $50 million.
Audiences evidently have mixed feelings about this film, with varying reviews. “Empire’s Havoc: American Civil War” received a B- grade on the CinemaScore website based in Las Vegas, and on the review site “Rotten Tomatoes,” it garnered 82% freshness rating from reviewers and 77% from the audience. The film is scheduled to premiere in Taiwan on May 1. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 73% of the audience are male, and over 16% of the box office revenue comes from IMAX sales.
“Spider-Man” actress Kirsten Dunst stars as senior war journalist “Lee” in the film, set against the backdrop of a near future where the country has turned into a dictatorship under a president about to be re-elected for a third term. Lee and a group of journalists plan to traverse the war-torn America to reach the White House.
According to foreign media reports, a key element of the film’s plot is the alliance between Texas and California, two states with starkly different political viewpoints in real life. In reality, California and Texas are two of the most politically distinct states in the United States, one being a stronghold of the left-leaning Democratic Party and the other a bastion of the right-leaning Republican Party.
Director Alex Garland explained to “Discussing Film” a political aspect of the civil war that puzzles the audience, stating, “There’s a fascist president who is killing his own citizens. What happens then is that two states with different political stances say, ‘We care about the fascist, constitution-shredding, violent president, we care about this issue more than our political differences.'”
Garland also elaborated on the role of journalists in the film, saying, “The film is about journalists reporting news in the old way. I’m trying to echo that form of reporting, and if I start throwing prejudices around, I would mess up that reporting form. Otherwise, I would disrupt the film’s argument that polarization is not a good thing.”
Apart from “Empire’s Havoc: American Civil War,” the top five in the North American box office ranking last weekend were dominated by franchise films. Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ fifth installment in the MonsterVerse film series, “Godzilla vs. Kong: The New Empire,” after two consecutive weekends as the North American box office champion, dropped to second place in its third weekend with a revenue of $15.5 million, totaling approximately $158 million in North America and a global box office income of $436 million.
Sony Pictures’ fourth installment of the authentic “Ghostbusters” series, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” experienced only a 36% drop in the fourth weekend, ranking third with a revenue of $5.8 million in North America. Its North American total box office stands at $96.92 million, with a global box office income of $159 million.
In fourth place is DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” under Universal Pictures, which, despite being available for rental and purchase in North America, continued to perform well at the box office, earning $5.5 million in its sixth weekend. The film’s North American box office total reached $173 million, with a global box office income of $452 million. After its release in South Korea last Wednesday, it knocked off “Exhuma,” which had held the top spot in the South Korean weekend box office for seven consecutive weeks.
Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.’s “Dune: Part Two” has now entered its seventh weekend, ranking fifth with a North American weekend box office income of $4.3 million, totaling $272 million in North America and a global box office income of $684 million.