'Ready Player One' Aims for Strong Easter Weekend
by EG
Ready Player One is almost certainly going to be the top movie this weekend, but will it earn enough to be a financial success. The Spielberg film is likely to take in a bit more than $50 million, but it's also saddled with a big production budget. It has to do better than that for an extended period of time to get into the black, and that's far from a done deal at this point.
Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One has kicked off its box-office run with $3.8 million in Wednesday night previews and has a shot at crossing a pleasing $50 million in its U.S. debut, according to early Thursday returns.
The big-budget film is opening everywhere on Thursday in order to get a jump on Easter weekend and is on course to earn $13 million-plus for the day.
Ready Player One will easily be Spielberg's biggest opening since the last Indiana Jones movie, which launched to $100.1 million in summer 2008. Warner Bros. continues to project a $45 million-$50 million domestic debut for Ready Player One; others think the sci-fi adventure could approach $54 million to $55 million, but caution that it is tough to make a definitive call at such an early stage (the big question is how frontloaded the audience will be).
Ready Player One — which marks Spielberg's return to popcorn fare — is a big gamble, considering it cost Warners and Village Roadshow an estimated $175 million to produce before marketing. It also launches in numerous major foreign markets timed to its U.S. bow, including China. On Wednesday, the pic took in $2.9 million in its first handful of markets, led by South Korea ($980,000) and France ($794,000). Its foreign total is $3.2 million, including Tuesday previews.
The movie, based on Ernest Cline's pop-culture-soaked novel about a teen's quest to win control over a virtual universe, will need to do sizable business over the course of its run to land in the black.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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