Civil War likely to hang on to number 1 as Abigail and Ungentlemanly Warfare open soft at the box office

Last Updated on April 22, 2024

It looks like this weekend’s two big, original IP, new releases, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and Radio Silence’s Abigail, are struggling to find an audience at the weekend box office. While we predicted that Abigail might have a chance at cracking $20 million this weekend, the film will make closer to half that, with Deadline’s numbers suggesting it’ll likely only make about $10 million, despite decent reviews (including ours). Why is it struggling? It’s hard to say, but part of the reason might be that A24’s Civil War, which was last weekend’s box office champ, is having a better hold than expected. It’s looking like it will only slip about 57% in week 2, which is a surprise as everyone thought the B-minus CinemaScore and controversial premise meant that the film would be front-loaded. Rather, it looks like the film has become a must-see, with the controversial word-of-mouth helping make it a movie people need to see. Sometimes, controversy can be a good thing, folks (check out our chat with Alex Garland, who weighed in on the movie’s California/ Texas team-up here). 

Meanwhile, Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is having a devil of a time finding its audience, with it currently being trounced by Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in its fourth week. Due to its complicated financing structure, the movie isn’t out on Canadian screens, which is certainly hampering its box office potential, and as of right now, it looks like it’ll open with $8.7 million. That’s not a great number for the movie that was supposed to help launch Henry Cavill as a leading man, but the notion of it hitting streaming in Canada and in most international territories (including the UK – where it should have done its best business) is a mind-boggling choice, although I suppose that’s how those movies are financed these days.

What did you go see this weekend? Let us know in the talkbacks.