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. 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.
Critical response '' wrote: "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?"
Matt Zoller Seitz, writing for
RogerEbert.com, compared
Civil War to films about "Western journalists covering the collapse of foreign countries," such as
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) and
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), ultimately praising the film as "furiously convincing and disturbing." Lovia Gyarkye of
The Hollywood Reporter also gave the film a positive review, writing: "With the precision and length of its violent battle sequences, it's clear
Civil War operates as a clarion call. Garland wrote the film in 2020 as he watched cogs on America's self-mythologizing exceptionalist machine turn, propelling the nation into a nightmare. With this latest film, he sounds the alarm, wondering less about how a country walks blindly into its own destruction and more about what happens when it does."
Manohla Dargis of
The New York Times echoed the sentiment, writing: "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." Some critics had mixed reactions.
The Washington Posts Amy Nicholson described the film as "coldly, deliberately incurious about the combatants and the victims" but also wrote "the film feels poetically, deeply true, even when it's suggesting that humans are more apt to tear one another apart for petty grievances than over a sincere defense of some kind of principles." Valerie Complex of
Deadline Hollywood offered negative comments, writing: "The script's utilization of characters of color as conduits for brutality needed to be explored further ... Ultimately,
Civil War feels like a missed opportunity. The director's vision of a fractured America, embroiled in conflict, holds the potential for introspection on our current societal divisions. However, the film's execution, hampered by thin characterization, a lackluster narrative and an overreliance on spectacle over substance, left me disengaged." Johnny Oleksinski of the
New York Post observed: "
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. That such an alliance could ever occur is about as likely as [a]
Sweetgreen/
Kentucky Fried Chicken combo restaurant." Eisa Nefertari Ulen, writing for
The Hollywood Reporter, also found that the film, despite being "otherwise solid", was partially missing its point, stating: "
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.
Civil War does not resonate like that classic, because it does not explicitly address this moment. We as a people cannot fix a problem we cannot name."
Stephanie Zacharek of
Time observed: "
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. Romero project: sometimes a
B movie with a sense of humor about itself says more about a nation's despair than an overserious, breast-beating one ... Do we really need a movie to invent, and rub our noses in, the possibility of a bleaker future?" Filmmakers
Lena Dunham,
Hannah Fidell,
William Goldenberg,
Matt Johnson,
Lance Oppenheim,
Daniel Scheinert,
Nicholas Stoller, and
Nacho Vigalondo all cited
Civil War as among their favorite films of 2024, with Goldenberg calling it an "all-too-real look at our possible future." The film received both praise and criticism for its approach to contemporary political themes, including concerns of
democratic decline and increased
political polarization.
Accolades ==References==