A24, long seen as a bastion of risk-taking auteur filmmakers, stepped into the minefield of blockbuster contenders last weekend with Alex Garland's "Civil War."

The result was an opening total of $25 million, the best yet.

But that wasn't a high bar.

Before “Civil War,” A24’s best opening was Ari Aster’s “Hereditary,” which released in 2018 to just over $13 million. Though “Everything Everywhere All at Once” would become A24’s best film four years later, it spent its first few weeks in limited release and slowly built up its haul through word of mouth once it went wide.