Civil War topped the box office this weekend and landed the biggest opening ever for A24.

THR reports that the action film directed by Alex Garland brought in $25.7M, which was more than expected. The film costs $50 million to create.

This new dramatic movie is about “a journey across a dystopian future America,” following a team of “military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach DC before rebel factions decent upon the White House.”

It stars Nick Offerman as the President, Kirsten Dunst (Lee), Wagner Moura (Joel), Jefferson White (Dave), Nelson Lee (Tony), and many others.

What Alex Garland says of the movie's timing

In a recent interview, Garland discussed why it was important for the film to be released during an election year. There has been some controversy surrounding it due to the realities of democracy potentially being at stake due to political differences, so the film hits close to home.

“When I worked on Ex Machina, [which was] about AI, people sometimes use the word prescient or predictive [to describe the film] and I always feel slightly embarrassed when people say that because at the time I wrote it, there was [already] a huge debate about it,” the director said. “I think all of the topics in [Civil War] have been a part of a huge public debate for years and years.”

“These debates have been growing and growing in volume and awareness, but none of that is secret or unknown to almost anybody,” he continued. “I thought that everybody understands these terms and, at that point, I just felt compelled to write about it. If you cast your mind back to when I wrote this in June four years ago, there was an election coming and we're dealing with Covid — the same conversations as now. Identical. So that's where it came from.”

“America's divisions are echoed almost precisely in many countries around the world,” he continued. “In the case of America, there's an extra danger given its power and importance in the world. America has an internal concept in its exceptionalism that means it feels it's immune to some kinds of problems. One of the things history shows us is that nobody is immune. Nobody is exceptional. And if we don't apply rationality and decency and thoughtfulness to these problems, in any place, it can get out of control…I'm not trying to locate [these problems] to America; that would be factually wrong. I can take you back home [to Britain] and can show you the same stuff happening in my country. But the implications here are much greater.”

As for how critics and viewers see the movie, it has a pretty good response so far. On Rotten Tomatoes, it's at an 83% Tomatometer and 77% Audience Score.

We'll see how long Civil War can win the box office battle.