April 2024 box office preview: ‘Civil War,’ Zendaya’s ‘Challengers’ top a slower month of genre films

Oddly, April is going to be a month full of genre films, but it’s also a month that might make some wonder whether any of the new movies can open with more than $20 million, putting theaters back into the place they were back in January and February. Read on for Gold Derby’s April 2024 box office preview.

“Civil War” (A24 – April 12)

Considering how Alex Garland‘s previous films “Men” and “Annihilation” were received, it’s hard to believe that his edgy political apocalyptic thriller could be one of the biggest movies of this month, but it’s also likely to be A24’s first movie to hit #1 on the weekend after 10 years of releases. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman, Jesse Plemons and Wagner Moura, Garland’s latest premiered at the SXSW Film and TV Festival, where it received mostly positive reviews. With the timeliness of the topic, there’s a good chance this will be one of if not the biggest openers this month with somewhere in the $20 million or higher range, but it will rely heavily on whether it can bring in viewers from both sides of the political spectrum during what’s already a vicious Presidential election year.

“Challengers” (MGM – April 26)

This movie delayed from 2023 is the latest from Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name”), a tennis drama involving a love triangle between the super-hot Zendaya, Josh O’Connor from “The Crown” and Mike Faist from “West Side Story.” Tennis movies have a strange history at the box office with it being 10 years since the rom-com “Wimbledon,” starring Dunst, and few tennis movies since then have done much better. “Challengers” will be capitalizing heavily on its popular cast and the film’s sexiness, and if positive reviews match up with the marketing, this could end up opening in the $15 million range ahead of the summer box office season.

“Abigail” (Universal – April 19)

One of the other big genre movies of the month will be this horror entry about a group that kidnaps a young girl named Abigail, who turns out to be a vampire. From Radio Silence, the group behind the last two “Scream” movies, the movie stars Melissa Barrera (“Scream”), Kathryn Newton (“Lisa Frankenstein”), Giancarlo Esposito (“Breaking Bad”), Dan Stevens, and others, and it seems like the type of high-concept horror film that could do quite well despite opening in one of the month’s busier weekends. Expect an opening in the $15 million range.

“Unsung Hero” (Lionsgate – April 26)

This month’s faith-based true story drama stars Daisy Betts as Helen Smallbone, an Australian mother trying to keep her musical family together, as both her daughter Rebecca (St. James) and her sons Luke and Joel Smalbone –who perform as King & Country (Joel co-directed the film) – begin finding success as Christian recording artists. This is from the Kingdom Story Company, who had a huge hit with 2020’s “I Still Believe,” and more recently released “Ordinary Angels,” as well as last year’s “Jesus Revolution” and 2021’s “American Underdog.” This will be another good test for Lionsgate’s faith division to see if this can open over or under $10 million.

SEE 2023 box office hits: Every movie that made more than $100 million

“The First Omen” (20th Century – April 5)

The April genre-thon will get quite interesting in that first week, where there’s also a prequel to the Richard Donner-directed 1976 horror classic “The Omen,” this one starring Nell Tiger Free from M. Night Shyamalan‘s series, “Servant,” as a novitiate who travels to Italy to join a convent where she discovers a horrifying secret. Yes, it does sound a lot like Sydney Sweeney‘s recent “Immaculate,” released this past month, and we’ll have to see if its proximity to that indie hit will help this bring in an audience, especially against other stronger genre fare. Due to the competition alone, this might struggle to open with more than $15 million.

“Monkey Man” (Universal – April 5)

Universal kicks off genre month with this action revenge-thriller starring and directed by Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire”), which “Get Out” mastermind Jordan Peele joined as a producer to bring it over to Universal from its former home at Netflix. The movie just premiered at the SXSW Film and TV Festival, where it also received positive reviews, which should help this give “The First Omen” a run for second place against “Godzilla x Kong.” We’ll have more about both of those in next week’s weekend preview.

“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” (Lionsgate – April 19)

Filmmaker Guy Ritchie returns with his latest action-comedy, this one based on a true story as documented in Damien Lewis‘ book “Churchill’s Secret Warriors,” with Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding and Alex Pettyfer playing a group of soldiers recruited by the British military to strike against German forces during World War II. This is quite a different movie for Ritchie, being that it is based on a true WWII story, but it should at least do better than last year’s “Operation Forture: Ruse de Guerre” and “The Covenant” with somewhere in the $10 million opening range.

“Spy x Family Code: White” (Crunchyroll – April 19)

This month’s big Anime release is this action-comedy involving a family of spies, based on the manga by Tatsuya Endo, which was released in Japan last December, and became a huge hit there. Crunchyroll decided to delay it a few months before its American release, which may or may not create the anticipation from fans they might want. This is opening on a particularly busy weekend, so it might have a tough time getting anyone but diehard Anime fans.

“Boy Kills World” (Roadside Attractions  – April 26)

Bill Skarsgård, Famke Janssen and Jessica Rothe star in this revenge thriller with Skarsgård playing the deaf and mute Boy, whose is trained to become an instrument of death after his family is murdered. Directed by German filmmaker Moritz Mohr, this was fairly well received after its “Midnight Madness” debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” (Iconic Releasing – April 12)

This remake of the 1991 comedy stars June Squibb, Nicole Ritchie and Miles and Jermaine Fowler, is basically the same plot involving an elderly babysitting dying, leading to all sorts of mayhem. This is essentially getting a Fathom Events-type release, so we’ll have to see what kind of impact it might have on the stronger “Civil War,” if any.

“Sasquatch Sunset” (Bleecker Street – April 12 limited, April 19 wide)

The new movie from the Kellner Brothers, David and Nathan (“Kumiko the Treasure Hunter”) stars Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough, as two members of a family of Sasquatches in this comedy that played well at the Sundance Film Festival back in January. It will have a week of limited release to build word-of-mouth for its wide release.

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Next, we’ll get into some of the limited releases for the month of April …

“The Greatest Hits”  (Searchlight/Hulu – April 5)

Directed by Ned Benson (“The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby”), this love story starring Lucy Boynton (“Sing Street”), David Corenswet (“Superman”) and Justin H. Min, deals with the connection between music and memory.

“Housekeeping for Beginners” (Focus Features – April 5)

Macedonian-Australian filmmaker Goran Stolevski (“You Won’t Be Alone”) returns with his third feature, a drama about Dita (Anamaria Marinca from “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and Two Days”), a woman who steps in to raise her girlfriend’s two daughters in order to keep the family together.

“The Beast” (Sideshow/Janus – April 5)

Léa Seydoux and George MacKay star in “Nocturama” director Bertrand Bonello‘s adaptation of the Henry James novella, “The Beast in the Jungle,” which has received much acclaim since debuting at various film festivals last September.

“The Old Oak” (Zeitgeist/Kino Lorber – April 5)

British filmmaker Ken Loach delivers what is meant to be his final film, starring Dave Turner as the owner of a local pub in small British mining town who decides to do something help the local Syrian refugees, much to the ire of the locals.

“Food Inc. 2” (Magnolia – April 12)

This sequel to Robert Kenner and Melissa Robledo‘s acclaimed and Oscar-nominated 2008 doc takes a more current look at the modern industry.

“Sting” (Well Go USA – April 12)

A young girl named Charlotte has been raising a spider in secret, only for the creature to transform into a giant flesh-eating monster. Also starring Jermaine Fowler from “Don’t Tell Mom, The Babysitter’s Dead,” this could end up getting a wider release.

“Arcadian” (RLJEfilms – April 12)

Nicolas Cage stars in this apocalyptic thriller, along with Jaeden Martell, playing a father and son trying to survive the end of the world in a remote farmhouse.

“Omen” (Utopia – April 12)

No relation to “The First Omen,” Belgium’s Oscar selection, directed by Baloji, follows a Congolese man (Marc Zinga) who returns home to Africa with his pregnant fiancé (Lucie Debay) after spending a year in Belgium to confront his family’s secrets.

“We Grown Now” (Sony Pictures Classics – April 26)

Minhal Baig‘s Film Independent Spirit-nominated drama about two young best friends, Malik and Eric, dealing with the hardships of growing up in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing compex in 1992.

“Humane”  (IFC Films – April 26)

2nd Gen filmmaker Caitlin Cronenberg helms this horror-thriller starring Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire and Peter Gallagher, at a family dinner that erupts into chaos after an environmental collapse that forces humanity to euthanize 20% of its population.

That’s it for now, but make sure to check back every Wednesday for the weekly weekend preview.

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