By Chris Kavan - 04/01/18 at 09:01 PM CT
Ready Player One had virtually no competition and, as such, turned out to be Steven Spielberg's best opening in nearly a decade. Meanwhile, Tyler Perry also had a good debut with Acrimony while the faithful continued to support I Can Only Imagine as the third entry in the God's Not Dead series was buried and doesn't look to be resurrected any time soon. Black Panther continued to enjoy a steady hold while the same couldn't be said for Pacific Rim: Uprising, which took a nasty tumble. All in all, while it wasn't a record-breaking weekend, it was still very good.
1) READY PLAYER ONE
Steven Spielberg's Easter Egg-laden adventure was a perfect fit for Easter. The nerd-gasm explosion opened with $41.2 million for the weekend and $53.2 million including its early opening. That makes it the biggest opening for Spielberg since 2008 when Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opened with $100 million - and the director's fifth-biggest opening weekend on record. The film was a hit with critics (76% on Rotten Tomatoes) as well as audiences, who gave it an "A-" Cinemascore. That audience was 59% male and 56% over 25. Given the reception, Ready Player One is looking at a total between the $125-$130 million range. Besides a great domestic opening, it was a also a big hit in China, where it opened to $61.7 million, a record opening for a Warner Bros. film in that market. Of note, it also had an 80% jump from Friday to Saturday - also a record for any Hollywood film - indicating word-of-mouth should make this huge in that market. It has earned $128 million overseas thus far and with a budget estimated at around the $175 million mark, should have no problem making money in the long run.
2)
ACRIMONY
Tyler Perry's latest non-Madea film, one of the last he will release with Lionsgate, opened to a nice $17.1 million. While that total is a bit low for Perry (a comparable example in I Can Do Bad All By Myself opened to $23.4 million), it was better new for star Taraji P. Henson, whose last film, Proud Mary, grossed just over $20 million in its entire run. Henson and Perry have teamed up before and it looks like Acrimony will continue their successful run. Audiences awarded the film and "A-" Cinemascore - made up mostly of women (79%) and 85% coming in over 25. The $20 million film should wind up with around $35 million comparing it to previous Perry films. That also means that by the end of its run Perry will be very close to hitting the $1 billion mark among all his domestic releases.
3)
BLACK PANTHER
The highest-grossing super hero film of all time wasn't fazed by the new competition, as it stood up well under pressure, dipping a mere 34.1% and adding another $11.26 million to its total, which crossed the $650 million mark with a new $650.7 million total. It has just one day before it will top Jurassic World to become the fourth highest-grossing domestic release of all time - and it's only a matter of time before it tops Titanic ($658 million) to move up to third place. The film is looking at a domestic total of at least $680 million, with a chance to move higher depending on how Ready Player One and the impending Rampage play with audiences. With $1.273 billion worldwide, it also has topped Beauty and the Beast ($1.263 billion) and will soon top Frozen ($1.276 billion) to move up to 10th all-time on that list. Heck, really the only movie that is finally going to stop Black Panther is Avengers: Infinity War and I think Disney will be just fine with that.
4)
I CAN ONLY IMAGINE
Also holding up well, and likely getting a boost from Easter audiences, the feel-good faith-based I Can Only Imagine dipped just 21%, adding $10.75 million to its total, which now stands at $55.57 million. That makes it the highest-grossing film for Roadside, topping Manchester By the Sea ($47.69 million), and the $7 million picture has a real chance of deposing Heaven is For Real ($65 million) to become the faith-based champion among non-Narnia or Passion of the Christ films. I can't even imagine how much better it would be doing if it didn't have direct competition from two other films (even if those films aren't performing nearly as well). It is still looking very good for the film and it should hit $60 million easy - we'll see if it has enough to reach $70 million by the time its done.
5)
PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING
After a first-place debut, Pacific Rim: Uprising took a bit hit with a 67.3% drop, adding just $9.2 million in its second weekend. That gives the John Boyega-led sequel a new $45.6 million total and the $150 million budgeted-sequel will have to keep hoping for big overseas numbers if it wants to make any money. Lucky for it, it has $200 million worldwide thus far, but foreign numbers may just not be enough to consider this sequel a success and I have a feeling we're going to have to get our giant mech fighting fix another way in the future.
Outside the top five: The God's Not Dead franchise may finally be dead. A Light in Darkness didn't even crack the top 10, opening with a frankly terrible $2.63 million (12th place), well below the opening of God's Not Dead 2 ($7.6 million) and the original ($9.2 million). Plus, given that Easter audiences are likely to be the most receptive, the film looks to be out of theaters as quickly as it appeared and I have a feeling this is the end for the franchise.
In milestone news, Tomb Raider managed to cross the $50 million mark with a $4.7 million weekend (8th place) and new $50.5 million total. It has earned $245 million thus far worldwide - better than Assassin's Creed anyway, and already the seventh-biggest video game adaptation, though that doesn't guarantee we're going to be seeing another Croft entry anytime soon.
In limited release. Isle of Dogs continued to impress earning $2.8 million from just 165 theaters (topping the total for God's Not Dead in 1,693 theaters) with a still-great looking $17,030 per-theater average. We'll see how Wes Anderson's latest performs as it leads up to its nationwide debut on April 13th.
Next week A Quiet Place looks to be a breakout horror hit and will be joined by the comedy Blocks, biographical crime/drama Chappaquiddick and the uplifting The Miracle Season.
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