Civil War
#BOXOFFICE: “CHALLENGERS” IS A GRAND SLAM IN DEBUT
It’s grand slam for CHALLENGERS! Luca Guadagnino‘s latest starring Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist and Zendaya debuts in the top spot with $15 million from 3,477 theatres for Amazon Studios/Warner Bros. The Tennis Drama-Thriller-Romance gets 88% on the Tomatometer.
Second goes to UNSUNG HERO with $8 million for Lionsgate/Kingdom Story from 2,832 theatres. It gets 56% on the Tomatometer.
GODZILLA X KONG is third with $7 million from 3,312 theatres also for Warner Bros., a five week tally of $181.5 million.
Fourth is CIVIL WAR with $6.2 million from 3,518 theatres, bringing its run to $55.3 million in weekend three for A24/Elevation Pictures.
Rounding things off is ABIGAIL with $4.5 million for Universal Pictures, a total $18 million in its second weekend.
#BOXOFFICE: “CIVIL WAR” EDGES OUT “ABIGAIL” AT #1
CIVIL WAR takes top spot once again at the Box Office with $11 million from 3,929 theatres for A24/Elevation Pictures. This takes it to $44 million over two weekends.
Horror ABIGAIL just gets edged-out at the Box Office this weekend with $10 million from 3,300 theatres across North America, a debut in second. It gets 82% on the Tomatometer.
Third is THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE with $9 million for Lionsgate. This latest effort from Guy Ritchie gets 92% on the Tomatometer.
In fourth we have GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE with $8.5 million from 3,658 theatres for Warner Bros. In tallies in at $170.6 million in its fourth weekend.
Rounding things off is SPY X FAMILY CODE: WHITE with $5 million, getting 96% on the Tomatometer for Sony/Crunchyroll.
#BOXOFFICE: “CIVIL WAR” DEBUTS TO RECORD-SETTING OPENING
No doubt it’s a smash! Alex Garland‘s CIVIL WAR debuts atop the Box Office this weekend with a smashing $25 million for A24, an all-time high debut for the buzzy independent distributor. The dystopian Drama Thriller gets 83% on the Tomatometer. Elevation Pictures release in Canada.
In second is GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE with $14 million for Warner Bros., taking it to $157 million in its domestic run.
Third goes to GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE with $4.6 million for Sony Pictures, a tally of $95.8 million to date.
MONKEY MAN finds itself in fourth in its second weekend out for Universal Pictures with $4.5 million, a total $18.1 million made thus far.
KUNG FU PANDA 4 rounds this Top Five out with $4.4 million for Universal Pictures, bringing its run to $172 million.
#INTERVIEW: ALEX GARLAND ON “CIVIL WAR”
By David Baldwin
Oscar-nominated Writer/Director Alex Garland is best known for his critically acclaimed sci-fi/horror films Ex Machina and Annihilation. This weekend, he takes on an entirely different beast with CIVIL WAR, a relentlessly paced, breakneck thriller involving a group of journalists traveling across the war-torn countryside of the former United States in hopes of interviewing the third term President before he surrenders to invading factions. The cast includes Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jesse Plemons and Nick Offerman.
We had the chance to chat virtually with Garland about the film and his process. Here’s what we learned:
Can you speak about the importance of sound design in CIVIL WAR? Did you always intend for the film to be shown in IMAX?
Garland: I never dreamed we’d be able to show this in IMAX. And I was really pleased, and the people I worked with were extremely pleased, that that’s where we ended up. It’s a great environment to show a film. It’s not just the screen, it’s as you said, the sound system.
In terms of the evolution of [the sound design], I think what I should really say first and foremost is that I work and have worked for more than two decades with a really great sound designer [named] Glenn [Freemantle]. I’ve never not worked with him actually. And a lot of what you hear is not my work, it’s his work and it’s his thoughtfulness and it’s his understanding of the tone of the film. What I do is I cut the Film with an editor and then Glenn will take it away for a few weeks [after] we have a discussion, we talk about some of the ideas. In CIVIL WAR, a lot of that was about reality and it was about a mixture of silence and attack…Then Glenn takes it away and he just works on it and really what happens is I arrive a few weeks later to see what he’s done. Then we go through another process which is modulating and trying out little experiments and stuff. But the bulk of that is him working with his team in quite an autonomous way. So I just want to give the credit where it’s due.
Sound is extremely important. People kind of know [that] because if you watch a Horror film and it’s creeping you out and you’re at home, mute it, and suddenly it’s just not scary anymore. You take away the sound design and you take away the score and suddenly it all seems kind of empty. It might even become instantly a bit silly. It becomes the opposite of frightening almost immediately. So sound is hugely, hugely important in cinema.
Your previous films live in the science fiction/horror genres but CIVIL WAR does not. What made you decide to write this film?
Garland: The genre flows from the subject matter. The genre I saw this as was a war movie, but it could have been a Sci-Fi movie. I could have set it for example on a distant planet, and it would be [an] allegory…But it didn’t feel right because part of the currency of this film is about how much of this is real? How much of the dangers that are being offered up, how much are they real dangers? What would it take to get there? What are the behaviour patterns and thought patterns that could actually lead either America or my own country [the United Kingdom] or other countries around the world into this space?
Your films centre around strong female protagonists. Why do you gravitate towards a female point-of-view versus male?
Garland: In some ways I don’t really differentiate that much between a female point-of-view or a male point-of-view, which means I don’t ask – in some ways – too many questions of it. But I think it’s less political than it might seem. It doesn’t really contain a statement of any sort. I’m in my mid-’50s and I grew up watching films through the ’70s and ’80s and into the ’90s…a lot of them I absolutely love but in almost every movie, it would be a male lead. That’s just how films worked back then. And what that means is when I sit down to write a film, on some level I find it internally just slightly more boring if it’s a male lead because I feel like I’ve inhabited those stories so much. I find it just slightly more interesting [to write a female lead]…It’s like a 49 percent, 51 percent thing. It’s not a huge sort of urge. It doesn’t have an agenda. It’s got more to do with familiarity actually I think.
Is SPOILER dead at the end of the Movie?
Garland:*nods* [They are] brown bread as we would say in the UK, yep. *chuckles*
Elevation Pictures release CIVIL WAR in theatres on Friday, April 12, 2024.
Review here.
(Photo credit: Mr. Will Wong)
#SPOTTED: ALEX GARLAND IN TORONTO FOR “CIVIL WAR”
Acclaimed Novelest, Screenwriter and Director Alex Garland makes a return to Toronto in support of his highly-anticipated new feature CIVIL WAR. Known for his work on classics like 28 DAYS LATER, EX MACHINA, DREDD and more, Garland is no stranger to the City, having promoted ANNIHILATION here in 2018.
Garland’s latest debuted at SXSW ’24 to huge raves, centering on a group of journalists who travel across the United States during a rapidly escalating Second American Civil War, which has engulfed the entire nation. Many are calling the Film an allegory for the current political climate we are living in. It stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailey Spaeny, Nick Offerman and more and opens in theatres this Friday, April 12, 2024 via Elevation Pictures in Canada.
Our David Baldwin will be chatting with Garland during his Press Tour. Chat and Review coming soon!
A snap of Garland out and about doing the rounds today, including a visit to Breakfast Television! He caps off the day with a special Q&A tonight following an Advance Screening of the Film.
Elevation Pictures release CIVIL WAR in theatres Friday, April 12, 2024.
(Photo/video credit: Mr. Will Wong/Elevation Pictures)
#GIVEAWAY: ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN PASSES TO AN ADVANCE SCREENING OF “CIVIL WAR”
Elevation Pictures x Mr. Will want to give Readers a chance to win passes to an Advance Screening of CIVIL WAR. Screenings take place as follows on April 10, 2024 at 7 PM:
Toronto – Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, IMAX (Note 6:30 PM start time in Toronto)
Vancouver – Scotiabank Theatre Vancouver, AVX
Calgary – Scotiabank Theatre Chinook, IMAX
Ottawa – Scotiabank Theatre Ottawa, IMAX
Synopsis: An adrenaline-fueled thrill ride through a near-future fractured America balanced on the razor’s edge.
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Nick Offerman, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny
To enter for a chance to win, click “like” on this Post at MR. WILL ON FACEBOOK. In the comments there, tell us which city! You also have the option of entering from posts on our IG account and also our X account.
Rules and regulations here.
Elevation Pictures release CIVIL WAR on April 12, 2024.
(Photo/video credit: Elevation Pictures)
For advertising opportunites please contact mrwill@mrwillwong.com