• by Wayne Friedman , April 14, 2024

Capitalizing on political interest generated by real-life news during the presidential election season, A24's dystopian action film "Civil War" took the top spot among all theatrical box-office films for the second week in April, with a $25.7 million weekend opening, according to Comscore.

For the upcoming A24 studio, “Civil War” was its biggest opening ever. The film focuses on divisions and strife in the U.S. under the authoritarian rule of a three-term president. 

Three weeks after its opening, Warner Bros.’ “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” posted another $15.5 million, coming in second, while Universal Pictures' “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” (four weeks old) came in at $5.8 million and Universal's “Kung Fu Panda 4” -- now in it sixth week -- earned an estimated $5.5 million.

EDO Ad EnGage estimates that its national TV advertising spend for the movie amounted to a tiny $2.1 million for its entire campaign so far from 601 airings, yielding 325.9 million impressions --well below even modest ad spend for a big weekend box-office theatrical movie.

In contrast, “Kung Fu Panda” has spent $27.8 million, followed by "Godzilla x Kong" at $18.8 million and "Ghostbusters" with $14.5 million to date.

“Godzilla” has earned $157.9 million domestically and $436.6 million globally, while “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” is at $97.0 million domestically and $160.0 million globally and “Kung Fu Panda” has a domestic cume of $173.7 million and global total of $452.6 million.

Year-to-date, theatrical box-office revenues for the U.S. and Canada, per Comscore, are down 16% to $1.9 billion from 2023.