Civil War is shaping up to be a big hit. The action drama from A24 and filmmaker Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) won last weekend,making $25.7 million in the United States. It’s the most expensive movie A24 has ever produced, with a $50 million (or more) budget. But that bigger spend paid off with the best weekend ever for the company as it notched its first number-one debut.
Civil War Scores A Big Debut
That’s great news for a variety of reasons. In an era where IP is king, an original action movie topping the box office is a healthy sign for the future. In a post-Barbenheimer world, it’s an indication that things really may not return to the way they were during the years of Marvel’s dominance.
This year has had its share of sequels, but Civil War breaking out is a big positive. When an original movie is a hit, it reminds Hollywood that there’s another way to do things, and that itcanpay off to give a big check to an idiosyncratic filmmaker with an original idea. Of course, A24 doesn’t typically do sequels or IP, so Civil War’s original script isn’t the element that made it risky.
The risk was the $50 million price tag for a movie called “Civil War”, coming out in the United States just a few months before the first presidential election since the loser of the last election encouraged his followers to attempt a coup. At times, things have felt fairly civil war-y in America in the last few years, and A24 was making a big bet that a movie that tapped into that anxiety would be enticing, not off-putting.
That bet seems to be paying off, and I’m curious what it will mean for A24 as a studio and distributor. Right now, A24 has a very strong brand identity. People often use the phrase “like an A24 movie” to refer to something that has a strong creative voice, is often at least a little artsy or weird, and is more on the “indie” end of the budgetary scale.
A Costly Civil War
In recent years, A24 has taken on increasingly expensive projects. Before Civil War, Beau is Afraid was the studio’s most expensive project at $35 million. These movies would be considered mid-budget for most major studios, but they’re hugely expensive when compared to what A24 usually spends on its films. The company has also expressed interest in branching out into IP. With Ti West’sX,Pearl, and upcoming MaXXXine, the studio has an in-house series, but itsDeath Stranding moviewill be the first real exploration of this kind of film.
Success isn’t the only threat to A24. Anti-art decisions, like itsuse of AI-generated images to promote Civil War, are incredibly damaging to the image of a company that has promoted itself as a friend to auteurs.
At the same time that A24 began to discuss making IP-driven films, it also announced that it would make more action movies. Civil War is its big foray into the genre, and if it continues to succeed, it will likely mean more action from the distributor. I like action movies, so that isn’t bad news, especially if big commercial successes allow it to write even bigger blank checks for interesting directors.
But itwillmean change. A24 has never been as easy to pin down as discourse around it would lead you to believe. It makes and/or distributes a wide variety of movies in many genres. In 2023 alone, it released the romantic dramedy You Hurt My Feelings, the experimental Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest, the fever dream nightmare comedy odysseyBeau is Afraid, the sports/family dramaThe Iron Claw, the horror hit Talk to Me, and many others. There’s more range here than discussions about the company tend to acknowledge.
But those movies have largely had the common trait of being low-budget. The A24 business model has involved writing a bunch of small checks and hoping that one of them (like Hereditary,Everything Everywhere All At Once, orTalk To Me) breaks out and makes back much more than it cost. Bigger bets like Civil War are cool, but only if they continue to beinterestingbets. An “A24 movie” can be many things, but it would be a shame to see it come to mean “safe.”
