The film, which stars Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Maura, Jesse Plemons and Nick Offerman, is enjoying healthy business on regular screens and IMAX, and is already both Garland and distributor A24’s most successful film to date. And it needed to be, since it has the biggest budget of a movie by the company, which also spent a considerable amount marketing.
A healthy advance total pointed to good things for the movie, which, despite a B- CinemaScore from viewers, is clearly connecting, becoming the first A24 film to land atop the box office and the best start for an R-rated release this year.
It pushed current champ Godzilla X Kong to second place, and while it seems unlikely to stay too long at the top, it’s a big win for a film that wasn’t necessarily predicted to do as well as it has.