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Ready Player One Passes $500 Million Worldwide
Steven Spielberg’s nostalgia packed sci-fi romp Ready Player One has proven to be an unstoppable juggernaut at the box office as the film passes the $500 million worldwide mark. The impressive success of this film is one of the highest grossing sci-fi openings in China and has become Spielberg’s highest-grossing film in the past decade.
Ready Player One garnered a lot of criticism before it even hit theaters. Detractors looked down on the premise, claiming the references and Easter eggs were an empty cash grab hoping to succeed on the back of the current market for nostalgia. Reviews of Ready Player One gave the film the benefit of the doubt, remarking on its beauty and creativity, despite a few storytelling issues. In the end, it didn’t matter, because the film has proven its staying power and market draw.
Variety reports on Ready Player One‘s success as the film has made over $500 million worldwide. Spielberg’s sci-fi movie has earned over $200 million in China alone, with $61 million of that being earned in its opening weekend. Ready Player One‘s domestic box office earnings have been just as respectable, bringing in over $120 million in its run, so far. The rest of that $500 million is made up of a combined $179 million from other foreign markets. The film just opened in Japan this past weekend, so there is room for its box office success to continue to grow.
This outstanding box office success isn’t just notable because of the criticism over the film or because of Spielberg’s past decade as a director. It wouldn’t exactly be fair to say that the film is only doing well compared to the director’s past work. Ready Player One isn’t just doing well compared to Spielberg’s past decade, it’s doing well compared to everything that has debuted so far in 2018, earning a top spot on the earnings list for the films that have debuted this year. The film surprisingly passed both A Wrinkle In Time, which earned $116.8 million, and Pacific Rim Uprising, which earned $267.3 million.
Spielberg is personally enjoying the success of Ready Player One, the combination of his films’ total earnings has just passed $10 billion. The Schindler’s List and Raiders Of The Lost Ark director is the first to pass this milestone. Despite Ready Player One being one of Spielberg’s most notable projects in the past 10 years, it is still not his highest grossing movie. That distinction goes to Jurassic Park, which earned $983.8 million worldwide.
