Mediaweek editor James Manning looks at the weekend box office for March 29-April 1, 2018.
A combination of new arrivals and the Easter break has seen box office receipts grow just under 50% from the previous weekend to $17.31m. It was the biggest weekend at the box office since mid-February when Black Panther opened with $10m of an $18m total.
The top two Easter movies were both close to $4m and between them accounted for half of all ticket sales across the four days from Thursday to Sunday inclusive. (These figures don’t include the Easter Monday revenues.)
Ten new movies found a place in the top 20 with three in the top five and five in the top 10.
The $17.31m Easter haul compares with $19.94m on the Easter four-day break last year when The Fate Of The Furious opened with $10m.
#1 Ready Player One $3.93m
The Steven Spielberg-produced sci-fi adventure stars Ben Mendelsohn and it hit the spot for Easter audiences after it opened on 480 screens with the weekend’s second-best screen average of $8,195.
#2 Peter Rabbit $3.90m
The weekend’s biggest screen average was $9,677 for this mix of animation and real life on its second weekend. For Easter the film added 31 screens to 404. The gross to-date is $8.79m.
#3 Blockers $2.62m
This US prom night comedy opened on 385 screens with a screen average of $6,812.
#4 Love, Simon $1.19m
A rom-com with a twist was the third of three new releases in the top five. It opened on 218 screens with a screen average on $5,471.
#5 Pacific Rim: Uprising $1.06m
The second weekend of this movie that was made in Australia just managed to hang in the top five after revenues dropped 61%. It shed 149 screens to 276 and has taken $4.40m.