How did a completely original horror film manage to make so much dough at the domestic box office? An exciting premise will always engage the general public and A Quiet Place had a killer hook to center it's marketing around, the prospect of living in a world where making a single noise could lead to your death. Promoting the film mightily for five months, including a Super Bowl TV spot, helped get the film on people's radars and strong reviews from its premiere at the South By Southwest festival gave it a further boost. Clearly, this is a knockout performance for John Krasinski and company and is yet another recent example of a horror movie (following Get Out and especially It) doing far larger than normal business for a horror movie.
In its second weekend, Ready Player One held much better than the typical modern-day blockbuster, going down only 40% in its second frame to gross another $25 million for a domestic total of $96.9 million so far. That second-weekend drop is bigger than the 32% drop The Martian had in its second weekend, but right on par with the 40% second-weekend drop Interstellar faced. Ready Player One didn't have Thursday night numbers boosting its weekend total (the film opened on a Thursday instead), which helped its second-weekend hold, but this still indicates strong word-of-mouth for the title which looks to close its domestic run with at least $135 million as well as a strong foreign box office performance (especially in China where it just became the biggest Warner Bros. movie of all-time in the territory), making this one a nice box office winner.
Another original newcomer managed to flourish at the domestic box office this weekend, with the title specifically being Blockers. The R-rated comedy grossed $21.4 million this weekend, a solid number given it's $21 million budget and the fact that it didn't star a box office powerhouse like Will Ferrell or Mellissa McCarthy to headline it (though Leslie Mann has a quietly solid box office track record). Universal did their usual rampant promotion for this comedy that managed to stand out in a marketplace heavy on blockbusters and faith-based projects but light on yukfests, while strong reviews further helped prop it up. Since it held well throughout the weekend, it's likely Blockers closes it's domestic run around $65 million.
Still kicking up notable box office figures eight weeks into it's run, Black Panther dipped only 26% this frame to gross another $8.4 million for an outstanding $665.3 million domestic total, which takes it past Titanic to become the third biggest movie of all-time domestically. Right behind that superhero movie was I Can Only Imagine, which went down only 20% to gross another $8.3 million for a $69 million domestic total, an amazing haul for this low-budget feature. In its second weekend, Tyler Perry's Acrimony dropped 53% to gross another $8 million, giving it a domestic total to date of $31.3 million. If this one can surpass the $41.9 million total of Meet The Browns, it'll become the fifth biggest movie ever for Tyler Perry that didn't star Madea.
Chappaquiddick debuted this weekend in 1,560 locations and grossed $6.2 million, slightly above expectations going into the weekend. These results aren't all that great, but given that Chappaquiddick was delayed from a Holiday Season 2017 release to April 2018, giving the impression that the studio distributing it, Entertainment Studios, had given up on it having any award seasons prospects. It's doubtful Chappaquiddick will find any award season considerations but it almost certainly fared better here than it would have in a crowded holiday season marketplace. The fact that Entertainment Studios only paid $4 million for distribution rights to the title (though they apparently spent $16 million on advertising it) and limited its theater count were economic ways to ensure their risk on this title was minimal. All of that is a long-winded way of saying Chappaquiddick did so-so business, but it could have been worse and the studio handling it made some smart moves in releasing it.
Sherlock Gnomes had the best weekend-to-weekend decline of any title in the top 12 this weekend, dipping only 20% this frame. That's great, though it could add only $5.6 million to a domestic cume that still only stands at $33.8 million. Meanwhile, Pacific Rim: Uprising took another notable tumble as it fell 47% to gross another $4.9 million for a $54.9 million domestic haul. Cracking the top ten for the first time was Isle of Dogs, which grossed $4.6 million at 554 theaters for a per-theater average of $8,303 and a domestic gross to date of $12 million. Isle of Dogs has managed that domestic haul despite never going into wide release, though it'll head into 1,600+ locations on Friday. The final new wide release of the weekend, The Miracle Season, grossed only $4.1 million, a disappointing haul for the first title LD Entertainment handled as a stand-alone self-distributing studio.
Going down only 35% this weekend was A Wrinkle In Time, which grossed another $3.1 million for a $90.1 million domestic total. It looks like Disney will be able to get this one past the $100 million mark domestically. Going down 42% this weekend was Love, Simon, which grossed another $2.7 million for a $37.5 million domestic total. Also in its fourth weekend this frame was Tomb Raider, which dropped 60% to gross another $1.9 million, giving it a domestic gross of $55.1 million. In its second weekend, God's Not Dead: A Light In The Darkness dropped 58% to gross another $1.1 million for a $4.9 million domestic haul. This one's gonna struggle to get anywhere close to the $7.6 million opening weekend of God's Not Dead 2 in its lifetime domestic haul.
The Death of Stalin held solidly as it added another 70 theaters this weekend, as it grossed $1.1 million from 554 theaters for a $2,001 per theater average and a domestic total of $5.5 million. The Leisure Seeker grossed a decent $577,912 from 353 locations this weekend for a per-theater average of $1,637 and a domestic total of $1.8 million. You Were Never Really Here got off to a dynamite start this weekend, grossing $129,911 from 3 locations for a per-theater average of $43,304, the fourth best per-theater average of 2018 so far and also the fifth best opening weekend for an Amazon Studios release debuting in less than 10 theaters. A strong start for the title and given the grim tone of this title, it'll be interesting to see how it fares in the weeks ahead. In its second weekend, Gemini stumbled grossing $73,071 from 56 locations for a lackluster per-theater average of only $1,305 and a domestic total of $126,051. Finally, Lean On Pete debuted in 4 locations this weekend and grossed $50,118, an OK but not great sum that gave the feature a per-theater average of $12,530.
The Top 12 movies this weekend grossed a total of $149.9 million, the fourth best first weekend of April ever. A nice start for April 2018, which has a number of prolific titles ahead that should keep the box office momentum moving, including Rampage, I Feel Pretty, the wide release expansion of Isle of Dogs and on April 27th, the biggest movie of the month arrives...Kings.
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