Box Office: March 30th, 2018 – Ready Player One

“Ready Player One” took out “Pacific Rim: Uprising” this weekend, as expected. Even opening a day earlier than everything else, “Ready Player One” landed where expected with almost $42 million. That’s Spielberg’s biggest opening weekend since “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” back in 2008, which opened to $100 million. It’s also his fifth biggest opening weekend ever for the director, putting it behind both “Jurassic Park” and “The Lost World” as well as the Tom Cruise led “War Of The Worlds.” Unless the “Blockers” comedy has a bigger opening than expected, “Ready Player One” will likely be looking at a second place finish next weekend, with a 50% drop putting it at $20.5 million and “Blockers” looking at  a $16 million opening. Tracking currently puts  John Krasinki’s directorial debut horror film “A Quiet Place” at number one next week with an expected opening of $27.5 million.

Three of the top five films this week were led by black stars. Tyler Perry’s “Acrimony” landed at number two, as expected with $17.1 million. That’s not even close to Tyler Perry’s biggest opening weekend as director with “Madea Goes To Jail” opening at $41 million in 2009 and most recently with “Boo! A Madea Halloween” opening to $28.5 million in October of 2016. “Pacific Rim: Uprising” actually fell further than expected landing at $9 million rather than $11 million, putting it behind “Black Panther” ($11m) and “I Can Only Imagine” ($10m). There were two other faith-based films in theaters over the Easter weekend in addition to “I Can Only Imagine” with “Paul, Apostle Of Christ” finishing in the top 10 and “God’s Not Dead: A Light In Darkness” opening at $2.6 million at number 12. Wes Anderson’s “Isle Of Dogs” almost cracked the top 10, landing at number 11 with $2.9 million and garnering the “per box office/theater average” win once again with $17,839 per theater.

The biggest fall this weekend within the top 25 was the Bruce Willis led “Death Wish” which fell 8 spots while “Fifty Shades Freed” fell out of the top 25, from #23 to #40, a whopping 17 spot fall after 8 weeks in release. As expected, Academy Award Best Picture winner “The Shape Of Water” fell outside of the top 25, landing at #27, having been available on home video for almost a month now. The film made $63.5 million domestically on a budget of $19.5 million. Worldwide it made a whopping $190.5 million showing it pays to win the Best Picture Oscar. The biggest surprise to me was the closing of “7 Days In Entebbe,” starring Daniel Brühl and Rosamund Pike, after only 2 weeks. Released by Focus, the film hadn’t posted a budget but only made $3.2 million in it’s 2 week release.

#	Title	Weekend	Total	Budget	Week	LW	CH
1	Ready Player One (WB)	$41,764,050	($53,710,325)	$175m*	1st	N
2	Tyler Perry’s Acrimony (LGF)	$17,170,707	($17,170,707)	$20m*	1st	N
3	Black Panther (BV)	$11,486,915	($650,923,549)	$200m*	7th	#2
4	I Can Only Imagine (RAtt)	$10,445,994	($55,271,331)	$7m	3rd	#3
5	Pacific Rim: Uprising (Uni)	$9,370,405	($45,836,225)	$150m	2nd	#1
6	Sherlock Gnomes (Par)	$7,001,570	($22,822,216)	$59m	2nd	#4
7	Tomb Raider (WB)	$4,922,048	($50,715,273)	$94m	3rd	#5
8	A Wrinkle In Time (BV)	$4,842,624	($83,399,038)	$103m*	4th	#6
9	Love, Simon (Fox)	$4,767,488	($32,108,320)	$17m	3rd	#7
10	Paul, Apostle of Christ (Sony)	$3,457,864	($11,488,702)	$5m	2nd	#8
11	Isle Of Dogs (FoxS)	$2,943,366	($6,050,860)	**	2nd	#15
12	God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness (PFR)	$2,689,677	($2,689,677)	**	1st	N
13	Game Night (WB)	$2,511,676	($64,991,002)	$37m	6th	#9
14	Peter Rabbit (Sony)	$2,121,583	($110,767,709)	$50m	8th	#12
15	Midnight Sun (ORF)	$1,822,313	($7,671,529)	**	2nd	#10
16	Unsane (BST)	$1,450,575	($6,832,037)	$1.2m*	2nd	#11
17	The Death Of Stalin (IFC)	$1,345,577	($3,809,159)	**	4th	#17
18	Red Sparrow (Fox)	$718,609	($45,679,149)	$69m	5th	#13
19	The Greatest Showman (Fox)	$700,398	($172,069,900)	$84m	15th	#20
20	Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (Sony)	$678,717	($402,769,456)	$90m	15th	#19
21	The Strangers: Prey At Night (Aviron)	$668,560	($23,582,936)	$5m*	4th	#14
22	Baaghi 2 (FIP)	$650,722	($650,722)	$9.2m*	1st	N
23	Annihilation (Par)	$345,895	($32,158,866)	$40m	6th	#18
24	Death Wish (MGM)	$308,387	($33,410,244)	$30m	5th	#16
25	The Leisure Seeker (SPC)	$235,872	($1,068,778)	**	8th	#24

***ALL DOMESTIC NUMBERS FROM BOX OFFICE MOJO***

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