Monday Update:

Steven Spielberg posted his best opening weekend in a decade, as Warner Bros.’ Ready Player One began with $41.7 million. In addition to its Thursday opening, the film’s total stands at $53.7 million.

Coming about in line with pre-release expectations, the title marks Spielberg’s highest debut since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in summer 2008.

Lionsgate’s thriller Acrimony opened in second place with $17.1 million. Disney’s Black Panther stayed in the top three with $11.4 million, marking its seventh weekend in the top five — one of only four films in the past two years to achieve the feat.

Total box office this weekend was $136.0 million. That’s 4.6 percent above last weekend, but 19.8 percent behind the same weekend last year, when The Boss Baby led with $50.1 million.

Year-to-date box office totals $2.88 billion, or 3.2 percent behind the $2.98 billion through this same point last year. That’s the worst relative position the YTD box office has stood so far during 2018.

Our table of weekend actuals is at bottom, after our Sunday update featuring fuller analysis.

Sunday Update:

Steven Spielberg just scored his first No. 1 film in nearly a decade. Ready Player One, the adaptation of Ernest Cline’s 2011 sci-fi novel, blasted past pre-release expectations with a solid $41.2 million debut over the Friday-Sunday period and $53.2 million for the four-day holiday weekend. That put it several million ahead of most forecasts, which had it finishing in the $45-$50 million range in its first four days.

This is Spielberg’s first time at the top of the chart since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which debuted to $126 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend (and $100 million over the three-day) in 2008. Ready Player One benefitted from strong word-of-mouth out of the SXSW Film Festival, where many early reviews praised it as one of Spielberg’s best pure action films in years. It currently boasts a 76% “Certified Fresh” score over at Rotten Tomatoes and a very good “A-” Cinemascore.

With a PG-13 rating, Ready Player One was a viable option for families gathering over the holiday weekend, which helped lift its total above $50 million. With Black Panther and Pacific Rim Uprising both fading, Ready Player One is looking at a solid two weeks with no major action-movie competition, with its next major challenger coming in the form of the Dwayne Johnson video game adaptation Rampage on April 13. With a reported budget in the $175 million range, it’s going to need all the breathing room it can get (not to mention a solid performance overseas).

Second place went to Tyler Perry’s Acrimony starring Taraji P. Henson, which performed a successful feat of counterprogramming with an impressive $17.1 million in its opening weekend on a little over 2,000 screens. Perhaps the closest comparison here is Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, another infidelity-themed film written and directed by Perry which opened a bit better at $21.6 million on the same weekend back in 2013. That title went on to gross $51.9 million domestically on a reported budget of $37 million. Acrimony reportedly cost only about half that amount, so it should easily reach profitability by the end of its run.

Powered by both the Tyler Perry brand and Empire star Taraji P. Henson, Acrimony managed to rise above its poor critical reception, which tends not to matter as much with Perry’s core fanbase (its Cinemascore was an A-). Predictably, the film’s audience was 74% female and 85% over the age of 25.

The weekend’s other new wide release was the faith-based threequel God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness, which fell outside the Top 10 with a scant $2.6 million opening. The drama was likely hurt by the continued strength of the Christian-themed hit I Can Only Imagine, which continues to blast past expectations in its third weekend of release. The opening, which came in well below expectations, was significantly below both God’s Not Dead and God’s Not Dead 2, which opened to $9.2 million and $7.6 million in 2014 and 2016, respectively. The second film’s $20.7 million domestic total was a sharp drop from the original’s $60.7 million, and A Light in Darkness is primed to continue that downward trend.

Now in its seventh weekend of release, Black Panther posted another strong hold in third place with an estimated $11.3 million, bringing its total to a gigantic $650.7 million. Currently the fifth highest-grossing film of all time domestically, the Marvel superhero blockbuster will surpass Jurassic World ($652.2 million) by next weekend for the No. 4 slot. After that, it’s primed to overtake Titanic, whose $659 million lifetime gross includes 2012’s 3D re-release and last year’s 20th anniversary re-issue.

In fourth, faith-based drama I Can Only Imagine posted another strong hold, taking in $10.7 million in weekend three. The sleeper hit now has a total of $55.5 million in North America, making it distributor Roadside Attractions’ highest-grossing release ever (Manchester by the Sea was the previous record-holder with $47.6 million). In addition to adding 393 theaters over last weekend, the PG-rated film likely benefitted from families gathering for the Easter holiday weekend.

Falling to fifth was last weekend’s champ Pacific Rim Uprising, which took in $9.2 million in its sophomore frame. That represents a plummet of 67 percent, a steeper drop than the original Pacific Rim which fell 57 percent in weekend two. With just $45.6 million in its first ten days, the sci-fi sequel has struggled to gain a foothold in North America but is performing much better overseas, where the original film also made the majority of its money.

In sixth, last weekend’s family-friendly opener Sherlock Gnomes dropped a good 33 percent to an estimated $7 million, giving the animated sequel $22.8 million after ten days of release. Seventh place went to 20th Century Fox’s gay teen romance Love, Simon, which held well with $4.8 million in weekend three, giving it a total of $32.1 million.

Tied for eighth are holdovers Tomb Raider and A Wrinkle in Time, which both grossed an estimated $4.7 million in their third and fourth weekends, respectively. That gives them totals of $50.2 million and $83.3 million. Finally in tenth, Biblical drama Paul, Apostle of Christ benefitted from the Easter weekend crowds with $3.5 million in its second weekend, good for a total of $11.5 million so far.

Limited Release:

After opening to a stellar $1.6 million in just 27 locations last weekend, Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs had a successful expansion to 165 theaters, grossing $2.8 million for a hefty per-theater average of $17,030. That gives the Fox Searchlight release $5.9 million after ten days of limited release. It expands into more theaters next weekend before going wide on April 13.

Overseas Update:

Ready Player One had a sizzling opening overseas this weekend, taking in $128 million in 62 territories. That gives the Warner Bros. release a $181.3 million global total through Sunday, with $61.7 million of that coming from China. Notably, that’s the highest opening weekend for the studio ever in that country.

Pacific Rim Uprising took in another $22.2 million internationally this weekend, lifting its overseas cume to $96.6 million and its global tally to $142.3 million. The Universal release has yet to open in China, where the first film made a whopping $111 million by the end of its run.

With another $7.7 million overseas this weekend, Black Panther passed Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast ($1.264 billion) to become the eleventh highest-grossing film of all time globally with $1.273 billion. It will soon surpass another Disney stablemate, 2013’s animated blockbuster Frozen, which grossed $1.277 billion globally during its run.

Weekend Actuals (Domestic)

FRI, MAR. 30 – SUN, APR. 1

Studio Weekend Estimates (Domestic)

FRI, MAR. 30 – SUN, APR. 1