“A Quiet Place” has crept up on an unsuspecting box office and delivered a very impressive $50 million opening from 3,508 screens.
Holding a budget of $17 million, Paramount’s horror film saw its pre-weekend projections tick up last week as reviews gave the film a 97 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. But even the most optimistic of projections had the film making a $35 million start.
Not only is this result 51 percent higher than the $33 million opening for last year’s critically-acclaimed horror film “Get Out,” it’s also the biggest opening for Paramount since “Star Trek: Beyond” and the $59 million it made all the way back in July 2016. Globally, the film is off to a $71 million start, with half of its international rollout still to come.
With a B+ on CinemaScore — the same as last year’s horror hits “It” and “Split” — “A Quiet Place” is on its way to being the first big success for Paramount under new CEO Jim Gianopulos, as the word of mouth should make this film a top choice for moviegoers over the next three weeks rather than fizzle out early like many horror films. It’s also a relief for exhibitors, who were looking for films to help provide foot traffic in their theaters until “Avengers: Infinity War” comes out at the end of the month.
Other films are giving theaters a reason to smile, including WB/Village Roadshow’s “Ready Player One,” which earned $25 million in its second weekend for a 10-day domestic total of $97 million. Studio execs told TheWrap that they were hoping for a 40-50 percent drop from the film’s $41 million opening, and it got that with a 40 percent downtick.
Internationally, “RP1” added $81.7 million, with $42 million coming from China. The film’s Chinese total now sits at $161.3 million, with $13 million coming globally from IMAX screenings. It passed the $300 million mark on Thursday, and will pass $400 million tomorrow with a current global cume of $391.3 million.
In third is Universal’s new comedy “Blockers,” which hit the upper end of projections with a $21.4 million opening from 3,379 screens. The film had a budget of $20 million and continues the success that Universal has had with R-rated comedies, with “Girls’ Trip” making $140 million last summer. Combined with the success of films like “Game Night” ($104 million) and “A Bad Mom’s Christmas” ($130 million), raunchy comedies may be making a slow recovery at the box office after a 2017 that saw most of them flame out.
“Black Panther” takes fourth in its eighth weekend with $8.4 million, bringing its domestic total to $665 million and its global total to $1.3 billion. The Marvel film is $32 million away from crossing the global total for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
Just behind it in fifth is “I Can Only Imagine,” which sneaks past the $8 million made by a second-weekend “Tyler Perry’s Acrimony” to stay in the top five for a fourth week with $8.4 million. The faith-based film from Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate now has a $69 million cume.
Taking seventh this weekend is Entertainment Studios’ “Chappaquiddick,” which recounts the infamous 1969 scandal that destroyed Ted Kennedy’s hopes of becoming president. The film came ahead of projections for a $3.5 million start, instead taking $6.2 million from 1,560 screens. Finally, LD Entertainment’s inspirational film “The Miracle Season” took $4.1 million from 1,707 screens, putting it in 11th place.