Civil War
2024 · 109 min
Directed by Alex Garland. Written by Alex Garland. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson.
In the midst of a U.S. civil war, four reporters make the dangerous trip to the capital to interview the president before he is overthrown.
Critics 81% · audiences 69% · $69 million in the US and Canada on its first run · $59 million elsewhere · about 6.2 million tickets sold, 1.8% of the country
What they said about Civil War
- 2024
Garland's the last person to suggest a group hug. As statements go, his powerful vision leaves us shaken, effectively repeating the question that quelled the L.A. riots: Can we all get along?
— Peter Debruge, Variety - 2024
Rarely have I seen a movie that made me so acutely uncomfortable or watched an actor's face that, like Dunst's, expressed a nation's soul-sickness so vividly that it felt like an X-ray.
— Manohla Dargis, The New York Times - 2024
Civil Wars shtick is that it's not specifically political. For instance, as the US devolves into enemy groups of secessionist states, Texas and California have banded together to form the Western Forces.
— Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post - 2024
Casablanca endures because it spoke to a moment as 'crazy and mixed-up' as this one, and nudged the country away from its isolationist inaction.
— Eisa Nefertari Ulen, The Hollywood Reporter - 2024
Civil War has the vibe of your standard desolate zombie movie with a modern American backdrop, but it's far less effective than your average George A.
— Stephanie Zacharek, Time - 2024
Western journalists covering the collapse of foreign countries
— Matt Zoller Seitz
How it got made
In January 2022, Deadline reported that Alex Garland had signed on to write and direct the film for A24 with DNA Films co-producing. Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Cailee Spaeny were confirmed to star. In April, Karl Glusman was announced as part of the cast. In a May interview with The Daily Telegraph, Garland described the film as a companion piece to his 2022 film Men, and said it is "set at an indeterminate point in the future—just far enough ahead for me to add a conceit—and serves as a sci-fi allegory for our currently polarized predicament." In the same interview, Sonoya Mizuno was revealed as part of the cast, having appeared in all of Garland's previous films. Jesse Plemons, Dunst's husband, was cast in the uncredited role at Dunst's suggestion after the originally cast actor became unavailable a few days before shooting began. Garland called Plemons' availability "a stunning bit of good luck."
Principal photography began in Atlanta on March 15, 2022, under the code name Road Trip. By May, production had moved to London. The production budget for Civil War was $50 million, making it A24's most expensive film at the time. It was shot partially on the prosumer DJI Ronin 4D camera. The film's Washington D.C.–based finale required months of planning, with Alex Garland and cinematographer Rob Hardy holding a series of roundtable discussions with production designer Caty Maxey, VFX supervisor David Simpson, military supervisor Ray Mendoza and stunt coordinator Jeff Dashnaw. The scenes in the Washington streets were filmed in Stone Mountain, Georgia, while the White House sequences were filmed at the Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. In a March 2024 interview with The Guardian, Garland stated his intention to step back from directing after Civil War and focus only on writing.
Film editor Jake Roberts and sound editor Glenn Freemantle re-teamed with Alex Garland, as did VFX supervisor David Simpson with Framestore. Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow composed the original score for the film. Silver Apples' "Lovefingers", Suicide's "Rocket USA", De La Soul's "Say No Go", Skid Row's "Sweet Little Sister", Sturgill Simpson's "Breakers Roar", and Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" were used in the film.
At the box office
Civil War grossed $68.7 million in the United States and Canada and $58.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $127.3 million.
In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $18–24 million from 3,838 theaters (the widest-ever R-rated release by an independent studio) in its opening weekend. The film made $10.8 million on its first day, including $2.9 million from Thursday night previews (a record for an A24 release). It went on to debut to $25.7 million, surpassing Hereditary as the biggest opening weekend in A24's history as well as the studio's first film to top the box office. The opening weekend audience skewed male at 63%, while 57% of attendees were between ages 18–34. IMAX contributed over 16% of the opening weekend gross, with the main reasons given for seeing the film being its subject matter, the action, and a general interest in indie films (each grouping made up a third of the audience, with the former narrowly higher).
In its second weekend the film made $11.1 million (a 56% drop), remaining in first place, before falling to fourth place in its third weekend with $7 million. Variety noted that, despite its U.S.-centric subject matter, Civil War performed well in several markets outside the United States. This includes the United Kingdom, where it grossed $7.9 million as of May 19, and the Netherlands, where it reached ticket sales of $750,000. The film additionally opened in first place at the box office in Brazil, Spain, Belgium, Finland, and Portugal.