With just a few short weeks to go until its release, the first tracking numbers for Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One are in, with adaptation of Ernest Cline’s cult novel said to be looking at a $35 million debut weekend at the box office in North America, and a four-day haul of around $45 million over the Easter weekend.
Those numbers aren’t too promising for Warner Bros., which is said to be hoping for an opening weekend of $50 million plus. The budget for Ready Player One has not been revealed, but it is surely well above $100 million, with substantial further expenditure on advertising and promotion.
Spielberg hasn’t enjoyed the best of times at the box office lately; his last film The Post earned just $154 million worldwide, and is said to have sold less tickets than all but one of his previous movies, while his Roald Dahl adaptation The BFG flopped with just $183 million worldwide.
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Warner Bros. does still have a few weeks to push the film, and with press screenings and a rumoured premiere at SXSW, there’s still time for the movie to start generating some buzz.
In the meantime, check out the latest TV spot here…
From director Steven Spielberg, comes a world where you can do anything and be anyone. On March 29, experience an adventure of a lifetime. #ReadyPlayerOne pic.twitter.com/2IyNvJMWR5
— Ready Player One (@readyplayerone) March 7, 2018
Ready Player One 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.
Ready Player One is set for release on March 30th, 2018 and sees Steven Spielberg (The BFG) directing a cast that includes Tye Sheridan (X-Men: Apocalypse) as Parzival, Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) as Art3mis, Simon Pegg (Star Trek Beyond) as Ogden Morrow, Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) as Nolan Sorrento, T.J. Miller (Deadpool) as i-R0k, Hannah John-Kamen (Game of Thrones) as F’Nale Zandor, Win Morisaki as Diato, newcomer Philip Zhao as Shoto and Mark Rylance (The BFG) as James Halliday.
Originally published March 9, 2018. Updated April 16, 2018.
