Weekend Box Office: Ready Player One is number one

Giving Stephen Spielberg his biggest opening since Kingdom of the Crystal Skull‘s CGI monkeys unconvincingly swung onto screens, Ready Player One topped the weekend box office. The story of a teenager virtually slogging his way through pandering geek references, the adaptation opened with an estimated $41.2 million debut ($53.2 million if you count its Thursday and Wednesday night preview numbers).

That meant the second spot went to fellow newcomer Tyler Perry’s Acrimony, Perry’s dramatic, Madea-free entry making $17.1 million. Black Panther was bumped down to third with $11.3 million, with I Can Only Imagine slipping to fourth ($10.8 million) and Pacific Rim: Uprising plummeting from first to fifth with just a $9.2 million second weekend.

Meanwhile, while God may or may not be dead, it seems one of His franchises must certainly be. Following the respective $9.2 million and $7.6 million openings of God’s Not Dead and God’s Not Dead 2, God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness this weekend debuted to only $2.6 million. It came in twelfth, trailing behind Isle of Dogs despite playing in 1,528 fewer theaters. Time to call off the Christian Cinematic Universe Heaven Is for Real crossover event.

Please help these sad nobodies and: