Ready Player One might be the miracle Hollywood needs this Easter, as the film is currently predicted to hit somewhere between $45 million and $50 million in its opening weekend. The film, directed by Steven Spielberg, comes at a time when movie ticket sales are down across the board, with Pacific Rim Uprising and Tomb Raider being the latest indicators of the troubling trend.
The nostalgia-drenched film will have a lot going for it in terms of its release. Ready Player One will be releasing in the United States and several international markets, chief among them being China, a market that has become incredibly important to the success of Hollywood’s endeavors. That alone could bolster the movie’s earnings.
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Ready Player One is an adaptation of Ernest Cline’s hit novel by the same name about virtual reality gone wild. The novel images a world in which a computer program, called the OASIS, is integral in the lives of everyday people. When a race to discover an Easter egg within the OASIS is sparked by the program’s late creator, though, the knives come out and casual users go to war with big corporations within and without the OASIS.
In theaters March 29, Ready Player One stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Win Morisaki, Lena Waithe, Hannah John-Kamen, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Ben Mendelsohn, TJ Miller, Ralph Ineson and Letitia Wright.