Friday Estimates: Player One is Ready and Able with $15.2 million Friday

March 31, 2018

Ready Player One

Ready Player One earned first place on Friday with $15.2 million, for a two-day total of $27.2 million. Continuing the comparison I’ve been doing with G.I. Joe: Retaliation, this news is mixed. Ready Player One had a much better preview night, which we can attribute to previews being relatively new when Retaliation came out. The two films’ 24-hour Thursday numbers were nearly the same, and now Ready Player One has slipped just behind Retaliation’s pace. Ready Player One does have very good reviews, but the two films both earned A-minuses from CinemaScore, so they should have similar legs. I’m still going to give the edge to Ready Player One at $41 million / $52 million, but it is close.

Acrimony opened in second place with $7.26 million on Friday. Like most Tyler Perry movies, this one is critic-proof, as its Tomatometer Score is just 20% positive, but its CinemaScore is A-minus. If we use Temptation as a guide, then this film is looking at a nearly $17 million opening weekend. Maybe Easter will give if a little boost, but $17 million seems like a solid goal at this point.

Black Panther held onto third place with a solid $4.07 million and will reach $650 million by the end of the weekend.

God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness is struggling, to be kind. It only managed 11th place with $1.14 million on Friday, putting it on pace for between $2.5 million and $3 million over the weekend. This is not enough to avoid the Mendoza Line. Its reviews are only 20% positive, but it did score an A-minus from CinemaScore, so its doing much better with its target audience. There’s just no crossover appeal with these movies.

- Ready Player One Comparisons
- Acrimony Comparisons
- God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness

Filed under: Friday Estimates, Black Panther, Ready Player One, God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness, Acrimony, Tyler Perry