“Rampage” Smashes Its Competition

BOX OFFICE REPORT

April 13-15, 2018

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Rampage $34.5 million
A Quiet Place $32.6 million
Truth or Dare $19.0 million
Ready Player One  $11.2 million
Blockers $10.2 million

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson remained king of the box office, as Rampage won the weekend, though it faced some stiff competition. The video game adaptation took the top spot with an estimated $34.5 million. That's the third-best opening for a similar movie, below 2001's Tomb Raider and 2016's Angry Birds Movie. It's also another feather in the cap of the former wrestler, who starred in one of 2017's biggest movies (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) and even made movies like San Andreas and Pain & Gain No. 1 openers.

But close behind it was horror sensation A Quiet Place, which is just a few measly dollars away from topping $100 million already. By next weekend, it will be the second-biggest movie of the year. Yes, in just three weekends, it will have bested every other movie released this year besides Black Panther. And, at a cost of just $17 million, will be by far one of the most profitable.

Opening in third place, Blumhouse's Truth or Dare proved there's room for more than just one horror movie. The latest low-budget scarefest from Blumhouse opened with $19 million, earning more than quintuple its budget in just three days. The reviews were terrible, but audiences still turned up. Unlike A Quiet Place, it won't have legs in the theater, but it's already proved the studio's formula works. Ready Player One dropped to fourth place. Even with inflated ticket prices, it won't come close to finishing among Spielberg's top 10 films. And $500 million internationally won't be enough for a movie this big. Meanwhile, Blockers will struggle to top $50 million, but that's already well above its cost. It's almost like Hollywood should keep focusing on modestly budgeted movies instead of mega-blockbusters that could make or break them.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: The Rider, one of the most acclaimed films of the year. The rodeo drama starring mostly non-professional actors averaged $15,089 on its three screens.
  • Isle of Dogs seems to have found its ceiling. Despite adding more than 1,300 more screens, the Wes Anderson animated project only saw a 9.6 percent bump in its gross. Still, it's likely to make more than both Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou to finish as the director's fourth-biggest movie.
  • Beirut continues to delay the arrival of Jon Hamm, Movie Star. The '80s-set thriller about the conflict in Lebanon earned just $1.6 million, debuting all the way down in 13th place. Opening two days early only added about $400,000 to its haul.

Next week:

It's the last week before the summer movie season starts a week early. Amy Schumer's I Feel Pretty takes on the belated Super Troopers sequel. Though Schumer took her semi-autobiographical Trainwreck to No. 1 in 2015, she won't have the same luck here. I think that A Quiet Place will jump back to the top spot, with around $25 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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