Here’s an amazing, original ode to virtual reality and everything that’s Spielberg based on Ernest Cline’s bestselling YA novel, and for weeks tracking had this pic in the scary range of $38M-$42M over 4-days which would be a truly atrocious start for this movie which cost all in between production and P&A costs $300M-$325M (Village Roadshow is shouldering 35% of the production costs).

However, Warner Bros.’ smartly executed world premiere launch at the hipster-tech crossroads of SXSW (which fans went gonzo for), coupled with a riveting virtual reality stunted campaign (they have a Maze/arcade at Hollywood and Vine) — all of this seems to be paying off. Rivals love to say that Warners overspends on their TV spots (an accusation the studio denies), but if that’s actually going on here, then more power to them: This is an original movie, a potential start to a new franchise that deserves to win. A four-day opening at this level assists in propelling Ready Player One‘s legs before Avengers: Infinity War arrives at the end of April.

Now Ready Player One cost about the same amount of money as Justice League and that pic with a $657.9M global haul ($106M of that coming from China) didn’t profit with what our experts say was a $60M loss. However, there’s more mojo here with Ready Player One with its shiny reviews and exit polls, and that will help in giving this VR pic extra lives. As of Friday night, our finance sources want to see how international shakes out before calling game over on Ready Player One. In regards to those lowball estimates by tracking, distribution execs tell us that the abundance of male-dominated fare (i.e. Tomb Raider, Pacific Rim: Uprising), plus Black Panther‘s hold, pushed forecasts down.

PostTrak shows a glowing 4 1/2 starts out of five and an overall 83% positive for Ready Player One. Men over 25 were in abundance at 39% but with an 83% positive score. Men under 25 who showed up at 27% loved it the most with a 91% positive score. Women over 25 at 20% gave the movie an 85% with women under 25 only repping 14% of all moviegoers for a score of 75%. Twenty-two percent of all moviegoers are watching this movie with two-to-four friends, and majority of that subset are guys under 25.

Sixty-eight percent give Ready Player One a definite recommend with 28% saying yes, they’ll likely refer it. Fifty-five percent said the movie met their expectations while 38% said it exceeded their expectations. With kids off on Good Friday, there was a lot of walk-up business with Screen Engine/ComScore reporting 76% of all moviegoers buying their RPO tickets today. In addition, 47% came out because of the subject matter/Cline’s source material while 26% turned up because it was a Spielberg movie.

Tyler Perry’s Acrimony from Lionsgate drew a $7M opening day in what looks like a $16M start in 2nd, an improvement upon Taraji P. Henson’s Screen Gems misfire Proud Mary ($9.9M opening, $20.8M final) back in January. Perry’s fanbase is known to make a beeline for his movies at the multiplex following Sunday church services, and thanks to them, his titles are critic-proof. CinemaScore fans gave Acrimony an A-, which is fairly consistent with the grades he’s received throughout his career (his one B- being for 2013’s Peeples which died with a final $9.1M). Similar to his previous fare, reviewers had little patience for Acrimony with a 25% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Acrimony cost in the low teens before P&A not far from what Proud Mary cost. Lionsgate targeted Tyler Perry show marathons during the week of release with custom content pieces featuring the auteur himself. The distributor ran a robust multicultural campaign zeroing in on African American women including blitzes across targeted broadcast TV, cable, audio, social media and digital-first publishers. High-profile media integrations and custom content partnerships reached over 100M viewers across seven networks/programs, including Fox’s Empire premiere, a cross-platform partnership on BET on the new game show Black Card Revoked, and a multiweek partnership with OWN on The Haves and The Have Nots finale. RelishMix reports that Acrimony‘s social media “is simmering to a good 112.5M” social reach with Perry and Henson driving 45M of that from their combined social media handles. Merriam Webster reported that the word “Acrimony” has been one of their top lookups throughout the last month, particularly during the hours of prime time TV when spots for the Perry movie ran.

God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness from Pureflix, the Easter weekend’s third entry, is projected to make $950K on Friday for a $2.7M weekend outside the top 10. The pic follows the continuing adventures of Pastor Dave who after being sprung from prison contends with the problems of his college-based church being burnt down, as well as headaches from the university’s administration. The title’s lackluster debut suffers from being a threequel, and faith-based moviegoers are keenly aware when they’re being sold worn goods. RelishMix noticed that on social media the faithful “think this is a cash grab and not a movie promoting a Christian message anymore.” In addition, RelishMix didn’t notice any particular social media marketing material standouts, plus trailers weren’t being passed around a lot, under the 3:1 viral ratio average earned by most faith-based titles. Once a box office anomaly that opened to $9.2M and turned out an almighty 6.6x multiple stateside ($60.8M), God’s Not Dead has run its course. The only upside here is that a trilogy box set can now be pushed on DVD store shelves. Faith-based distributors are some of the most brilliant marketers in the business, able to stoke their crowds via radio, social media, sermons, group sales and Christian conferences, but churchgoers only flock to that which is a lightening rod to their souls, and in this case for the third weekend in a row, it’s Roadside Attractions’ I Can Only Imagine which is looking at a fourth place $10M take, a glorious -27% hold, with a running tally of $54.8M.

Huge shout out here to Fox Searchlight’s Isle of Dogs which is fetching $2.74M at 165 locations for a big $16K theater average.

On the specialty side, Neon’s Gemini starring Zoe Kravitz and Lola Kirke is on track to make $35K at four locations this weekend for a near $9K per screen. Neon acquired U.S. rights on the noir title about a personal assistant and her Hollywood starlet boss out of SXSW last year.

3rd Update, Friday AM: Audiences gave Ready Player One an A- CinemaScore last night and shelled out an estimated $12M which includes Wednesday night’s $3.75M previews (WB releasing their figures soon). This puts the feature take on Ernest Cline’s novel in a range to make $49.4M-$52M+ over the four-day Easter stretch; many in the industry are hopeful that it will clear the latter mark. Today will be a true test of interest since there’s 80% K-12 schools off with another 43% colleges.

Males at 59% gave the movie an A-, while women were slightly less impressed at a 41% turnout giving it a B+. Those under 25 came out at 44% and gave it an A-, which is a good sign (Those over 25 gave it a B+ at a 56% turnout). Those under 18 at 26% also enjoyed it with an A-. That’s where WB needs this to grow in the days ahead as Ready Player One is literally a part of some middle school’s English class curriculum.

In China, Ready Player One has a 9.1 review rating on Douban, which is huge considering most Hollywood movies have scored a 6 or 7 review rating. This translates into Yuans over there. Currently it’s looking like a $14.75M take first day in the Middle Kingdom which with previews takes the Spielberg pic’s cume to $15.2M and a potential $48M opening weekend.

Lionsgate’s Tyler Perry’s Acrimony held previews last night raking in $1M at 1,700 sites and will expand to 2,006 locations today. Last night’s figure is more than Boo! A Madea Halloween ($855K) in Thursday night previews and Boo 2! ($760K) which respectively turned in openings of $28.5M and $21.2M. Preview shows began at 7 PM. Such momentum will likely lift Acrimony toward a $15M-$20M start, if not higher.

In second place yesterday behind Ready Player One was Disney/Marvel’s unstoppable Black Panther which made $2.07M (+19% from Wednesday) and a running total of $639.4M. Legendary/Universal’s Pacific Rim: Uprising was third with $1.7M (+9%) and a week’s take of $36.5M. Fourth place belonged to Roadside Attractions I Can Only Imagine which earned $1.67M (+11%) and a two week tally of $44.8M.