In its second week of release, “Civil War,” a film produced by indie studio A24, continued to lead box office sales, drawing $11.1 million from 3,929 theaters. The film, which is A24’s most expensive project to date with a budget of $50 million, is set in a near-future America where Texas and California rebel against a fascist president. To date, it has earned a total of $44.9 million. The film’s intriguing plot and impactful marketing, featuring images of U.S. cities devastated by conflict, have kept it prominent in the minds of viewers.
However, it was a notably slow weekend for theaters, exacerbating concerns about a generally sluggish year for Hollywood, with ticket sales down nearly 20% from the previous year, according to Comscore data.
“Abigail,” a horror film from Universal Pictures about Dracula’s daughter, which had been anticipated to top the weekend’s sales, secured the second spot instead, bringing in $10.2 million across 3,384 theaters. The film, which retells the story of the 1936 film “Dracula’s Daughter,” focuses on a 12-year-old girl who turns out to be a challenging hostage for her kidnappers. It was produced on a budget of $28 million by directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of Radio Silence.
Other new releases also saw tepid responses, suggesting that similar slow weekends might continue throughout 2024. This slowdown in cinema attendance is partly attributed to last year’s prolonged actors and writers’ strikes, which disrupted the flow of new films.
In other box office news, Guy Ritchie’s “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” starring Henry Cavill in a World War II story, opened to $9 million in 2,845 theaters. Despite Ritchie’s previous successes, his recent films have had mixed receptions. Meanwhile, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” remains the top film globally, continuing to lead international ticket sales and bringing its four-week global total to $485.2 million.
The anime “Spy x Family Code: White,” an adaptation of the Tatsuya Endo manga series “Spy x Family,” debuted below expectations in the U.S. with $4.9 million across 2,009 theaters, although it has been successful internationally.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/abigail-civil-war-box-office-d8fe8822fdb08c5f4da19d51f1e2bda0