The idea of a summer movie season is long gone. As 2018 has pointed out, we are now in perpetual summer when it comes to blockbuster films. With the first quarter of the year dominated by “Black Panther,” we are now approaching the next phase of blockbuster films, led by this weekend’s release of “Ready Player One,” from the King of blockbuster filmmaking, Steven Spielberg.
There was no doubt that coming into this Easter holiday weekend that “Ready Player One” would win the weekend, but the real question was how much money the sci-fi film would bring in. Well, the news is pretty good for Warner Bros, as the Spielberg film came in at #1 with a total of $41.2 million over the 3-day weekend, and $53.2 million over the extended 4-day holiday weekend. While these aren’t world-shattering numbers, this is a respectable start to a film that is expected to do decently over the next couple weeks (before The Rock takes over with “Rampage” and then “Avengers: Infinity War” destroys all in its path).
While the domestic debut for “Ready Player One” is most definitely decent, the foreign numbers are a much better sign of the film’s potential success. Overseas, “Ready Player One” pulled in $128 million over the weekend, with a huge $61 million from China. That Chinese number is also a big deal for Warner Bros., as it becomes the best opening weekend ever for a WB film, passing “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s” $57 million.
Overall, as mentioned above, this is a respectable start for the big-budget Spielberg film. Ideally, the studio would have liked something larger (What studio wouldn’t want more money?), but with decent enough legs, “Ready Player One” could turn a profit for WB. And after the less-than-stellar debuts of “Tomb Raider” and “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” Warner Bros. has to be breathing a sigh of relief after this opening frame.
The other major debuts this weekend came from Tyler Perry and a faith-based threequel. “Acrimony” is the latest Tyler Perry movie, and as Tyler Perry movies tend to do, the film had a solid opening weekend at #2 with $17.1 million. While not a bad start for the film, “Acrimony” opened in the bottom half of Tyler Perry films (the worst since 2013’s ‘Madea Christmas’). However, Perry’s films rarely break out into blockbuster status, and routinely recoup their money for the studio.
The only other big release this weekend was the third film in the ‘God’s Not Dead’ trilogy, ‘A Light in Darkness.’ This faith-based film is the third in the series, which has steadily produced new films every two years. “God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness” didn’t do nearly as well as the previous two films, with a debut weekend of $2.6 million, which landed it outside the top 10 at #12. There are two main reasons for this showing. First, and foremost, there’s the crowded Christian film market this weekend. “I Can Only Imagine,” which has been a fixture near the top of the box office for three straight weeks, seems to be sucking up most of the faith-based audience’s money with a three-day total of $10.7 million (at #4). There’s also “Paul, Apostle of Christ,” which debuted last week and stuck around at #10 this week with another $3.5 million added to its total.
The crowded marketplace was compounded by the fact that the audience doesn’t seem to be coming out for “God’s Not Dead” much anymore. While the first film had a relatively huge total gross of $60.8 million back in 2014, the sequel dropped to a total of $20.8 two years later. With the $2.6 million opening weekend, ‘A Light in Darkness’ looks to drop even more. This doesn’t bode well for a potential 4th film in the franchise.
Now, you didn’t think we could write a Box Office Report and not mention “Black Panther,” right? The Marvel Studios film just continues to wow everyone with its strong legs. This weekend, the film pulled in another $11.3 million (a minor 34% drop), good for a #3 showing and a total of $650.7 million domestically. For those keeping track of the all-time domestic ranking, the film still sits at #5, but is within $2 million of “Jurassic World” and $9 million of “Titanic.” It’s all but assured that “Black Panther” will finish its run at #3 all-time domestically, which is absolutely astonishing.
Last week’s champ, “Pacific Rim: Uprising” dropped from #1 to #5 with a total of $9.2 million (a 67% drop). The sequel now has a domestic total of $45.6 million and is most definitely not going to come close to $100 million in North America. Universal is now completely banking on the foreign totals to help achieve a profit, however unlikely.
And last, but not least, this weekend also saw a bit of an expansion for Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs.” While the film didn’t quite make the top 10 (finished at #11), the animated dog film did pull in an additional $2.8 million, which is very respectable considering it played in only 165 theaters. The $17,030 per theater average was easily the best of the weekend and almost doubled the $9,733 per theater gross of “Ready Player One.” Continue to look for “Isle of Dogs” to pull in impressive numbers as it expands further.
Next weekend could be a three-horse race with “Ready Player One” looking to repeat at #1 against two newcomers. Both “Blockers,” an R-rated comedy, and “A Quiet Place,” a horror film, are getting a lot of buzz coming out of their debuts at SXSW. It’ll be interesting to see how the sci-fi video game movie competes with two completely different films.
Here’s the entire top 10 for March 30 – April 1:
1. Ready Player One — $41.2M (3-day)/ $53.2m (4-day) (Debut)
2. Acrimony — $17.1M (Debut)
3. Black Panther — $11.2M ($650.7M Overall)
4. I Can Only Imagine — $10.7M ($55.6M)
5. Pacific Rim: Uprising — $9.2M ($45.7M)
6. Sherlock Gnomes — $7M ($22.8M)
7. Love, Simon — $4.8M ($32.1M)
8. Tomb Raider — $4.7M ($50.5M)
9. A Wrinkle in Time — $4.69M ($83.3M)
10. Paul, Apostle of Christ — $3.5M ($11.5M)