Directed by Alex Garland and the Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza, Warfareopened with the one-two punch of excellent reviews and amazing audience response this week. The movie isn’t an easy one to watch; scene after scene is dedicated to depicting the grim realities of modern warfare. But it seems to have struck a chord with folks, and will likely deliver strong holds in the coming weeks. Warfare opened to solid numbers this weekend, and while it couldn’t match the high benchmark of Garland’s last film, Civil War, it bucked the trends that are normally attached to movies about recent geopolitical conflicts.

Films set against the backdrop of the Iraq War — Green Zone and Stop-Loss come to mind — have a poor track record at the box office. But fortunately, Warfare didn’t cost all that much. Produced on a reported budget of $20 million — this is $30 million less than...