âCivil Warâ edges out âAbigailâ to keep box office lead

FILE PHOTO: Kirsten Dunst poses on the red carpet during the Oscars arrivals at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. She stars in âCivil Warâ as Lee, a fictional Reuters photographer. FILE PHOTO/REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
LOS ANGELES â âCivil Warâ held onto its spot atop the box office on a slow weekend, taking in $11.1 million in its second week in North American theaters, according to industry estimates released Sunday.
Writer/director Alex Garlandâs drama about a sectarian conflict in the United States beat out the horror film âAbigail,â which opened with $10.2 million, Comscore reported.
âGodzilla x Kong: The New Empireâ grossed another $9.4 million Friday through Sunday in its fourth week in theaters.
Fourth place went to director Guy Ritchieâs âThe Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,â which opened with $9 million, followed by âSpy x Family Code: White,â which opened with $4.8 million.
Rounding out the top 10 domestic releases were âKung Fu Panda 4â ($4.6 million), âGhostbusters: Frozen Empireâ ($4.4 million), âDune: Part Twoâ ($2.9 million), âMonkey Manâ ($2.2 million) and âThe First Omenâ ($1.7 million).
This weekendâs overall three-day box office haul was estimated at $65.4 million. The year-to-date total is $1.981 billion â down 19% from the figure at this time last year, according to Comscore.
âCivil Warâ is a tense thriller about a group of journalists documenting societal collapse as they chase a scoop in a conflict-torn United States.
Set in the near future and both a war film and a road movie, âCivil Warâ sees fictional Reuters photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and reporter Joel (Wagner Moura) take to the road with the aim of reaching Washington, D.C., before it falls to a rebel faction.
To Leeâs dismay, aspiring young photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) and veteran reporter Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) also tag along for the obstacle-ridden trip from New York.
âItâs a story about journalists and why we need them and what they do. But itâs also asking a question, which is why is good journalism not getting the traction? Whatâs gone wrong? And then a very similar question about sort of polarized populist politics, extremist politics,â Garland said at the .filmâs premier in London last month.
Garland, director of âEx Machinaâ and writer of â28 Days Laterâ and âThe Beachâ began writing âCivil Warâ in 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the lead up to the U.S. presidential election that year. (With CNS report)