'Ready Player One' Set to Win Opening Weekend Box Office

Jamie Lovett

03/31/2018 04:10 pm EDT

Steven Spielberg's latest film, Ready Player One, will jump to the top of the box office in its opening weekend.

Ready Player One is expected to open to about $53 million from 4,234 locations this weekend.

Ready Player One opened on Thursday after Warner Bros. decided to take advantage of the Easter vacation weekend.

The film earned $17 million on Friday and is expected to earn $40 million over the usual Friday through Sunday window. Even accounting for the extra day at the box office, Ready Player One is outperforming early tracking expectations, which predicted the film would make no more than $42 million in its first weekend.

The film also opened in international markets on Thursday. After bringing in $28 million on Friday, Ready Player One's international total stands at $42 million. The film opened with 60 percent of box office revenue on in China, taking in $14 million and the number one spot in the market. The film is projected to have an opening weekend total of $25.2 million in China. It will become the third highest Chinese opening for a Warner Bros. film ever.

The record-breaking Marvel movie Black Panther slides down to the third place spot in its seventh weekend at the box office. The film is expected to earn $11 million over the weekend. The film is currently the fifth-highest grossing movie of all time, beating every other Marvel film and superhero movie and trailing not far behind Jurassic World.

Pacific Rim Uprising falls from first place in its opening weekend to fifth place in its second weekend. That's a 67 percent decline for the film, which is about 10 percent greater than the original Pacific Rim's first weekend to second weekend showing. The film is showing a stronger international performance, earning over $120 million to bring its global total to $160 million.

Keep reading to see how the top ten at the box office stack up this weekend.

1. Ready Player One

Opening Weekend
Friday: $15.1 million
Weekend: $40.3 million
Total: $52.3 million

From filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes the science fiction action adventure "Ready Player One," based on Ernest Cline's bestseller of the same name, which has become a worldwide phenomenon. The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world.

When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.

2. Acrimony

Opening Weekend
Friday: $7.3 million
Total: $16.9 million

A faithful wife (Taraji P. Henson) tired of standing by her devious husband (Lyriq Bent) is enraged when it becomes clear she has been betrayed.

Acrimony is produced, written, and directed by Tyler Perry. The film stars Taraji P. Henson, Lyriq Bent, Crystle Stewart, Jazmyn Simon, Jay Hunter, Ptosha Storey, Ajiona Alexus, Antonio Madison, Bresha Webb, Danielle Nicolet, Nelson Estevez, and Kendrick Cross.

3. Black Panther

Week Seven
Friday: $4 million
Weekend: $11.5 million
Total: $650.9 million

After the death of his father, T'Challa returns home to the African nation of Wakanda to take his rightful place as king. When a powerful enemy suddenly reappears, T'Challa's mettle as king -- and as Black Panther -- gets tested when he's drawn into a conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk. Faced with treachery and danger, the young king must rally his allies and release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people.

Black Panther is directed by Ryan Coogler from a screenplay by Coogler and Joe Robert Cole and stars Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis

4. I Can Only Imagine

Week Three
Friday: $3.6 million
Weekend: $10.4 million
Total: $55.2 million

Growing up in Texas, Bart Millard suffers physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father. His childhood and relationship with his dad inspires him to write the hit song "I Can Only Imagine" as singer of the Christian band MercyMe.

I Can Only Imagine is directed by Andrew Erwin and Jon Erwin, and stars J. Michael Finley as Bart Millard, the lead singer who wrote the song that the film is based on, which is the most-played Christian radio single of all time. it also stars Dennis Quaid, Cloris Leachman, and Trace Adkins.

5. Pacific Rim: Uprising

Week Two
Friday: $3.3 million
Weekend: $9.5 million
Total: $46 million

Jake Pentecost is a once-promising Jaeger pilot whose legendary father gave his life to secure humanity's victory against the monstrous Kaiju. Jake has since abandoned his training only to become caught up in a criminal underworld. But when an even more unstoppable threat is unleashed to tear through cities and bring the world to its knees, Jake is given one last chance by his estranged sister, Mako Mori, to live up to his father's legacy.

Directed by Steven S. DeKnight, Pacific Rim: Uprising is the sequel to 2013's Pacific Rim. The film stars John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Jing Tian, Adria Arjona, Zhang Jin, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, and Burn Gorman.

6. Sherlock Gnomes

Week Two
Friday: $3 million
Weekend: $7.4 million
Total: $23.2 million

After a string of garden gnome disappearances in London, Gnomeo & Juliet look to legendary detective Sherlock Gnomes to solve the case of their missing friends and family.

Sherlock Gnomes is a sequel to 2011's Gnomeo & Juliet. The animated film stars the voices of James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mary J. Blige, and Johnny Depp, with Jamie Demetriou, Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Ashley Jensen, Matt Lucas, Stephen Merchant, Julie Walters, Richard Wilson, Julio Bonet, Ozzy Osbourne, and Dan Starkey. The film is directed by John Stevenson, who also voices Big Boy Gorilla in the movie.

7. Tomb Raider

Week Three
Friday: $1.7 million
Weekend: $5.4 million
Total: $51.2 million

Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished years earlier. Hoping to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance, Croft embarks on a perilous journey to his last-known destination -- a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. The stakes couldn't be higher as Lara must rely on her sharp mind, blind faith and stubborn spirit to venture into the unknown.

Based on the 2013 Tomb Raider video game, Tomb Raider star Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, and Kristin Scott Thomas.

8. Love, Simon

Week Three
Friday: $1.9 million
Weekend $5.2 million
Total: $32.5 million

Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier, it's a little more complicated. He hasn't told his family or friends that he's gay, and he doesn't know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he's fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying and life-changing.

Love, Simon is directed by Greg Berlanti, written by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, and based on the novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. It stars Nick Robinson, Josh Duhamel, and Jennifer Garner and is the first film ever released by a major studio to focus on a gay teen romance.

9. A Wrinkle in Time

Week Four
Friday: $1.9 million
Weekend: $5 million
Total: $83.5 million

Meg Murry and her little brother, Charles Wallace, have been without their scientist father, Mr. Murry, for five years, ever since he discovered a new planet and used the concept known as a tesseract to travel there. Joined by Meg's classmate Calvin O'Keefe and guided by the three mysterious astral travelers known as Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which, the children brave a dangerous journey to a planet that possesses all of the evil in the universe.

A Wrinkle in Time is directed by Ava DuVernay from a screenplay by Jennifer Lee, based on the novel by Madeleine L'Engle. The film stars Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Peña, Storm Reid, Zach Galifianakis, and Chris Pine.

10. Paul, Apostle of Christ

Week Two
Friday: $1.2 million
Weekend: $3.7 million
Toal: $11.8 million

Risking his life, Luke ventures to Rome to visit Paul -- the apostle who's bound in chains and held captive in Nero's darkest and bleakest prison cell. Haunted by the shadows of his past misdeeds, Paul wonders if he's been forgotten as he awaits his grisly execution. Before Paul's death, Luke resolves to write another book that details the birth of what will come to be known as the church.

Paul, Apostle of Christ is written and directed by Andrew Hyatt. The film stars Jim Caviezel, Olivier Martinez, James Faulkner, Joanne Whalley, and John Lynch.

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