Weekend Wrap-Up: Spielberg’s Decade Best Can’t Save Overall Box Office
April 3, 2018
Ready Player One not only opened in first place over the weekend, but its three-day total of $41.77 million was Steven Spielberg’s best opening weekend as a director in almost exactly a decade. Acrimony was a solid second place finisher with $17.17 million. God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness missed the top ten. Overall, the box office rose 4.9% from last weekend hitting $136 million, but this was still 20% lower than the same weekend last year. 2018 is now 4.9% or $150 million behind 2017’s pace at $2.84 billion to $2.99 billion.
Ready Player One earned $41.77 million / $53.71 million during its opening weekend. Its legs should be solid, as it earned 75% positive reviews and an A minus from CinemaScore. On the other hand, the film cost $150 million to make. (If reports are correct, there’s $175 million on the screen, but Warner Bros. paid $150 million after tax breaks.) Additionally, there are reports that it cost $150 million to advertise globally. That’s a ton of money and I’m not sure if this film will last long enough to recover all of that cash.
Acrimony debuted in second place with $17.17 million. This is better than average for a non-Medea Tyler Perry film. The film’s reviews are only 25% positive, but it earned an A minus from CinemaScore. The film only cost $20 million to make and it very likely didn’t cost that much to advertise, so it is on pace to break even sometime during its home market run.
Black Panther held on better than expected with $11.49 million over the weekend for a total of $650.92 million after seven weeks of release. I really thought the direct competition from Ready Player One would hurt it more at the box office. At this pace, the film will climb to third place on the All-Time domestic chart by this time next week. Meanwhile it has a shot at $700 million domestically, if, and only if, Avengers: Infinity War provides some synergy. I strongly suspect the release of Infinity War will result in Black Panther losing a lot of theaters; however, there’s a chance it will encourage people to watch Black Panther and Infinity War back-to-back in theaters.
I Can Only Imagine slipped a spot to fourth with $10.45 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $55.27 million. It is on pace for $80 million, maybe even $90 million domestically. That’s amazing for a film that cost just $7 million to make. In fact, it is likely that it has broken even entirely at this point, assuming it cost about $20 million or less to advertise. That’s a fair assumption, although its early success definitely got the studio to up its advertising budget, it is still likely not significantly more than $20 million.
Pacific Rim: Uprising fell from first to fifth with $9.37 million over the weekend for a total of $45.84 million after two weeks of release. The film plummeted 67% during its sophomore stint and at this rate, by the time Rampage comes out, it will lose a significant chunk of its theater count.
God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness missed the top ten opening in 12th place with just $2.69 million. Its reviews are just 15% positive, so it has almost no crossover appeal. It did earn an A minus from CinemaScore, but this won’t matter. It opened below the Mendoza Line, so even if it has a good hold next weekend, theater owners will be looking to drop it as soon as they are contractually able to.
The best of the rest of the sophomore class was Sherlock Gnomes, which fell to sixth place with $7.00 million over the weekend for a total of $22.82 million after two weeks of release. The film cost nearly $60 million to make, so unless it is a big hit on the home market, it is not going to break even any time soon. Paul, Apostle of Christ held on better, but even so, it barely hung onto a spot in the top ten with $3.46 million over the weekend for a total of $11.49 million after ten days of release. While it held on well this week, its post-Easter run will likely be quite weak. Midnight Sun fell to 15th place with $1.82 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $7.67 million, while Unsane was right behind with $1.45 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $6.83 million. Both films are well below $1,000 on the theater average chart, so they will see their theater count plummet this Friday.
- Ready Player One Comparisons
- Acrimony Comparisons
- God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Black Panther, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Ready Player One, Midnight Sun, Sherlock Gnomes, God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness, Acrimony, I Can Only Imagine, Paul, Apostle of Christ, Unsane, Madea, Tyler Perry, Steven Spielberg