Things are looking good for Steven Spielberg's sci-fi adventure Ready Player One, which scored $17 million at the Friday box office, and is expected to gross $53 million in its opening weekend. The movie stars Tye Sheridan as Wade/Parzival, a pop culture obsessive who goes on a quest to find a hidden Easter Egg in the virtual world of the OASIS. The movie is set in a future where the real world is ugly, polluted and overpopulated, and people find escape from this misery in virtual reality.
It was difficult to predict how well Ready Player One would perform at the box office in the lead-up to its release. Though Spielberg is one of the most legendary directors of all time, his adaptation of Roald Dahl's beloved children's novel The B.F.G. was a box office bomb, and Ready Player One was subjected to a great deal of skepticism, with many deriding the Ernest Cline novel upon which it's based. However, the reviews have been extremely positive and already the movie has been drawing crowds over the Easter holiday.
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Variety reports that Ready Player One is expected to win this weekend with a $53 million domestic opening, having grossed $12 million during Thursday previews and $17 million on Friday. It's on track to surpass the early forecasts of a $38-42 million opening weekend, and will mark the biggest opening for a Spielberg movie in 10 years. The movie also opened in 62 international markets this weekend, and has so far grossed $42 million overseas, with $14 million from China alone.
In second place at the box office this weekend is Tyler Perry's Acrimony, which is on track for a $16 million opening. Ready Player One will benefit from a lack of major blockbuster competition as it heads into April, with a fairly clear path in the four weeks before Avengers: Infinity War arrives to blow everything else out of the water. Aside from that, Ready Player One's biggest competition is John Krasinski's horror movie A Quiet Place, which opens next week but is generally targeting a different audience, and the Dwayne Johnson-led action movie Rampage, which could end up getting steamrolled if positive word of mouth keeps Ready Player One going strong in its third weekend.
One of Ready Player One's major appeals is that, by virtue of its plot and protagonist, it's absolutely groaning with references and characters plucked from all sorts of movies and video games - from the Iron Giant to Chucky from Child's Play. If the reviews are to be believed, it's also conjured up some of that good old-fashioned Spielberg magic, which is worth more than all the Easter eggs in the world.
More: Ready Player One: The COMPLETE Easter Egg Guide
Source: Variety
