Why 'Ready Player One' Did So Well at the Box Office This Weekend
Steven Spielberg’s pop culture-filled take on the Ernest Cline novel, Ready Player One, dominated the box office this weekend while Black Panther inched closer to another achievement for the Marvel movie.
The Easter weekend domestic box office saw Ready Player One take in $41 million, bringing its domestic total to $53 million when including Thursday ticket sales, as estimated by Box Office Mojo. It’s projected to take in $127 million at the global box office, pushing the total opening weekend to more than $181 million. Although this surpasses the film’s production budget of $175 million, the virtual reality adventure flick has a ways to go before covering the marketing budget, which was more than $100 million.
As well as Ready Player One did, it couldn’t come close to Black Panther’s opening weekend of more than $200 million in domestic ticket sales. The film about the Wakanda king took in $11 million for the weekend putting it in third place and bringing its U.S. ticket sales total to $650 million. This puts it right behind 2015’s Jurassic World ($652 million) and 1997’s Titanic ($659 million) when not adjusting for inflation. Another $10 at the box office and Black Panther will be third on the top grossing films in the U.S. behind Avatar and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Debuting in second place is Tyler Perry’s Acrimony with $17 million. The film stars Taraji P. Henson who plays a woman seeking revenge on her cheating husband. While it didn’t do well with critics with a 24 percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes, it shows that Tyler Perry can still bring people to the theater. In fourth place is the religious film I Can Only Imagine with $10 million and falling from the top spot last weekend, Pacific Rim Uprising is in fifth place with $9.2 million.
Out on April 6 are two films movie reviewers have fallen for. A Quiet Place, a horror film about a family having to live in silence or else become hunted by mysterious creatures, is currently at a 100 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. The R-rated comedy Blockers about parents trying to stop their daughters losing their virginity on prom night has an 89 percent fresh rating so far.
In late April, Ready Player One, and the rest of the film industry, will have to deal with the movie already breaking records, Avengers: Infinity War.
Photos via Warner Bros
Photos via Warner Bros
Written by Oscar Gonzalez
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