Alex Garland’s New War Movie Just Cracked A24’s All-Time Box Office Top 20, Knocking Out A Crucial Hit

The new war movie from filmmaker Alex Garland has pulled off a major box office feat for A24. Garland began his career as a novelist, but he broke into film when his 1996 novel The Beach was adapted into a movie in 2000. Although the adaptation was written by John Hodge (Trainspotting), Garland later collaborated with The Beach director Danny Boyle, writing the screenplays for his movies 28 Days Later, Sunshine, and the upcoming 28 Years Later.

Eventually, the roster of Alex Garland movies began to expand even more. After writing the screenplay for 2012’s Dredd, he made his feature-length directorial debut with the 2014 sci-fi movie Ex Machina, which he also wrote. He then went on to both write and direct the 2018 Jeff VanderMeer adaptation Annihilation, the 2022 horror movie Men, and the 2024 dystopian thriller Civil War in addition to creating the FX series Devs, for which he wrote and directed all eight episodes.

Warfare Is One Of A24’s Highest-Grossing Movies

It Just Landed On An Important Box Office Chart

Alex Garland’s Warfare has landed on a new major box office chart. The movie, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Ray Mendoza (who was the military advisor on Garland’s Civil War), is based on Mendoza’s own experiences following the Battle of Ramadi during the Iraq War in 2006. The Warfare release kicked off in mid-April with an $8.3 million opening weekend seeing it open quietly at No. 4 behind The Amateur, The King of Kings, and Minecraft, though it managed to show strong audience hold and maintain a spot in the Top 5 during its sophomore weekend.

Warfare has a star-studded ensemble cast that includes D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (playing Mendoza), Will Poulter, Kit Connor, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, Noah Centineo, Cosmo Jarvis, Finn Bennett, and Michael Gandolfini.

Per The Numbers, Warfare has reached a worldwide box office total of $31.2 million at the worldwide box office shortly before the beginning of its sixth weekend in theaters. This total sees it surpᴀssing A24’s first-ever box office hit, 2013’s Spring Breakers ($31.1 million), to become their 20th highest-grossing movie of all time at the global box office. It is currently 19 spots below Civil War, which stands at No. 1 with a global haul of $127.3 million.

What This Means For Warfare

It May Not Climb Higher

Will Poulter looking stunned while wearing a helmet and uniform in Warfare

Ultimately, given how far it is into its theatrical release, it seems unlikely that Alex Garland‘s Warfare will climb any higher up the global chart of the highest-grossing A24 movies. This is because more than $5 million separates it from the No. 19 тιтle, which is 2015’s Room ($36.3 million). However, it has already established itself as one of the company’s best-performing тιтles, having outgrossed more than 10 dozen movies either produced or distributed by them, including The Farewell ($25.5 million), The Green Knight ($20 million), X ($15.1 million), Bodies Bodies Bodies ($14 million), and Swiss Army Man ($5.8 million).

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Source: The Numbers