A24-distributed “Civil War” is a surprise cinema hit over the weekend, defying odds since such topical-political movies are typically boxoffice poison. The R-rated violent drama from distributor A24 posted a hefty $25.7 million over the April 12-14 weekend, exceeding tracking-research expectations.
The dystopian action film set in the near future presents the United States engulfed in a civil war that subtly plays off today’s real-life conservative-progressive liberal divided in politics. It was written and directed by Alex Garland (“Ex Machina”), who is English.
For “Civil War,” the messaging uses Donald Trump as president and his MAGA movement as a punching bag, but it’s cleverly soft-pedaled, which may be a factor in its boxoffice success. The messaging is a sort of dog-whistle for Trump haters (not overt but clearly recognized by the target demographic) yet not so overt to turn off other audience segments.
Again, the dog-whistle is in the marketing messaging, not the movie itself. Distributor A24 is a master marketer, evidenced by winning the Oscar for Best Picture in 2022 with off-beat drama “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Some press, film critics and commentators seemed to play along with A24’s marketing approach. A DailyBeast.com essay by Nick Schager booms “Explosive Warning Against a Trump Takeover.” But beyond the headline, the Schager commentary only mentions Trump by name once in text, all the while larding in incendiary language like “hatred,” “catastrophic consequences,” “bedlam” and “not-so-fanciful end of times.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times called the movie “a terrifying premonition of American collapse.” You get the picture!
Convincing the press seems to play along is reminiscent of 1992 drama “The Crying Game,” where then up-and-coming distributor Miramax convinced journalists and film critics not to reveal a transgender character. More than just shielding audiences, the ploy was seen as psychological manipulation by convincing the press to join “team Miramax.”
Another boost for the cinema run of “Civil War” is a pricey-for-indies media spend on advertising by A24. “I’m told they did spend on P&A on their most expensive movie of all-time, which cost more than $50M, with around $20M+ in marketing,” writes Anthony D’Alessandro in Deadline.com.
Deploying over $20 million in domestic advertising is about double the usual outlay for an indie wide release, though only about half of a major studio advertising campaign. “Civil War” premiered at 3,838 theaters; that’s a wide release typically defined as more than 600 theater locations. The drama benefited from light competition as movie flow is reduced from last year’s Hollywood strikes and a hangover from Covid pandemic.
The final A24 trailer presents a character prominently saying “it is American. 100%” in what might lead viewer to conclude the movie is not an indictment of today’s political right. The trailer could easily be confused for red-states resistance classic “Red Dawn.”
Besides critics who praised the film for its contemporary political parallel, others pointed out the soft-pedaled political message in the movie and gave a lukewarm appraisal.
Hollywood trade The Ankler headlined its story: “A Movie Called ‘Civil War’ Shouldn’t Avoid Politics This Much,” though calls the film “a solid thriller.” The Ankler writer Darren Franich suggests industry works to sidestep contemporary controversies because, “Nobody wants to get canceled or doxxed.”
Elsewhere, New York Post newspaper reviewer Johnny Oleksinski boiled down the plot to “you, too, could soon be tied up at a roadside gas station and tortured by dudes with Southern drawls.” The movie’s director “with his incessant vagueness, is clearly aiming to keep the story universal rather than divisive. … Avoiding the elephant (and donkey) in the room makes the whole shebang feel fake, with the help of some lethargic actors.”
Hats off to A24 for threading the needle of capitalizing on today’s heated political environment without getting tagged with labels.
LATE ADD April 24. A24 released a new poster series showing devastation of America by civil war, yet none of the images are in the movie itself. “’Civil War’ is A24’s most expensive production to date, costing around $50 million,” writes James Hibberd in The Hollywood Reporter. “Yet the images make the film look like a movie with twice that budget.” One image is of a bombed-out Las Vegas with the new landmark The Sphere with gaping holes. Misleading marketing materials often trigger lawsuits against originating film distributors.
Regarding topical politics being boxoffice poison, the third edition of business/academic book “Marketing to Moviegoers” noted that a raft of films playing off the then-incendiary topic of Iraq- and Afghanistan-related war films “flopped in quick succession during late 2007. They were serious and hardly ‘feel good’ films that audiences seek for entertainment. These include ‘Redacted,’ ‘Rendition,’ ‘Lions for Lambs,’ ‘In the Valley of Elah,’ ‘The Kingdom,’ ‘Grace Is Gone,’ ‘A Mighty Heart,’ and ‘Taxi to the Dark Side.’”
All involved filmmakers thought that they had important societal messages that would be embraced by large audience segments, but audiences were turned off by the topic.
Avoiding contemporary politics seems to be a current trend as evidenced by popular movie star Dwayne Johnson recently promising to “keep my politics to myself,” after publicly endorsing now-President Biden in the prior election.
Having deftly tip-toed around topical politics in both film content and marketing messaging, it remains to be seen how “Civil War” will fare in the rest of its cinema run. It’ll be an interesting case study if audiences who are pro-Trump or politically apathetic will climb on board for the cinema run. My guess is steep fall-off because the movie itself got lukewarm reviews and there’s little chance of crossover beyond its core audience.
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