Quiet Place creeps into first place

John Krasinski stars as Lee Abbott and Noah Jupe plays Marcus Abbott in Paramount Pictures’ A Quiet Place. It came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $50.2 million.
John Krasinski stars as Lee Abbott and Noah Jupe plays Marcus Abbott in Paramount Pictures’ A Quiet Place. It came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $50.2 million.

LOS ANGELES -- Paramount Pictures' dark thriller A Quiet Place debuted in first place with $50.2 million in domestic weekend ticket sales, crushing the most optimistic industry expectations of $25 million, according to figures from measurement firm ComScore.

The PG-13 horror flick, directed by and starring John Krasinski (The Office), follows a family of four forced to live in silence while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound. It scored a B-plus from audience polling firm CinemaScore and a 97 percent positive rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film, which cost an estimated $17 million, also stars Emily Blunt (Sicario, The Devil Wears Prada), Krasinski's wife, and is the first Paramount title to outperform expectations since Jim Gianopulos took over the studio last year.

The movie follows the surprise horror smash It, which opened to $123 million in September and went on to a final gross of $327 million. A Quiet Place joins the ranks of recent horror breakouts such as Annabelle: Creation, which opened with $35 million and finished with $102 million; Get Out, which opened with $33 million before racking up $176 million; and Split, which opened to $40 million on its way to amassing $138 million in ticket sales.

Warner Bros.' Ready Player One, now in its second week, came in at No. 2, adding about $25 million in ticket sales (a 40 percent decline) for a cumulative total of about $96.5 million.

Universal Pictures' raunchy comedy Blockers opened in third place with about $20.5 million. The R-rated comedy follows three parents bent on preventing their daughters from losing their virginity on prom night. It earned a B rating on CinemaScore and an 83 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

While Warner Bros.' Game Night continues to do respectable business, Blockers is a true breakthrough for the genre. It's the third-highest opening for an R-rated comedy in the last three years, behind only 2016's Bad Moms ($23.8 million) and 2017's Girls Trip ($31.2 million). Both of those pictures had strong holds and went on to gross more than $100 million each.

In fourth place for the weekend, Disney's Black Panther continues to do strong numbers, adding about $9 million in its eighth weekend in theaters for a cumulative total of $665.6 million. It is now the third-highest-grossing movie ever at the U.S. box office (not adjusted for inflation), unseating Titanic, which finished its domestic run with $659.3 million.

Also new this week was Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures' Chappaquiddick, which made about $6 million, above analysts' expectations of $4 million.

The political drama, which cost $20 million to acquire and market, tells the story of a 1969 accident involving Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy that killed young political campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne. It earned a B rating on CinemaScore and an 80 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The final new wide release of the weekend, LD Entertainment's The Miracle Season, starring Helen Hunt, opened with about $4 million. The film, about a high school volleyball team that must overcome a tragedy, earned an A rating on CinemaScore and a 34 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In limited release, Fox Searchlight's Isle of Dogs continues to do well, adding 389 theaters (for a total of 554) for about $4.6 million in ticket sales, for a cumulative total $12 million. The film will expand further in the coming weeks.

This week, Neon opens the drama Borg vs. McEnroe, New Line Cinema debuts the action flick Rampage, Fun Academy premieres the animated movie Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero and Universal drops the thriller Truth or Dare.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:

  1. A Quiet Place, Paramount, $50,203,562, 3,508 locations, $14,311 average, $50,203,562, 1 week.

  2. Ready Player One, Warner Bros., $24,624,178, 4,234 locations, $5,816 average, $96,484,703, 2 weeks.

  3. Blockers, Universal, $20,556,350, 3,379 locations, $6,084 average, $20,556,350, 1 week.

  4. Black Panther, Disney, $8,704,968, 2,747 locations, $3,169 average, $665,630,708, 8 weeks.

  5. Acrimony, Lionsgate, $8,380,983, 2,006 locations, $4,178 average, $31,665,563, 2 weeks.

  6. I Can Only Imagine, Roadside Attractions, $7,801,111, 2,894 locations, $2,696 average, $68,528,313, 4 weeks.

  7. Chappaquiddick, Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, $5,765,854, 1,560 locations, $3,696 average, $5,765,854, 1 week.

  8. Sherlock Gnomes, Paramount, $5,436,068, 2,733 locations, $1,989 average, $33,734,129, 3 weeks.

  9. Pacific Rim: Uprising, Universal, $4,827,245, 2,627 locations, $1,838 average, $54,837,305, 3 weeks.

  10. Isle of Dogs, Fox Searchlight, $4,562,854, 554 locations, $8,236 average, $12,011,788, 3 weeks.

  11. The Miracle Season, Mirror/LD Entertainment, $3,950,652, 1,707 locations, $2,314 average, $3,950,652, 1 week.

  12. A Wrinkle in Time, Disney, $3,301,707, 1,701 locations, $1,941 average, $90,274,463, 5 weeks.

  13. Love, Simon, 20th Century Fox, $2,767,003, 1,464 locations, $1,890 average, $37,544,267, 4 weeks.

  14. Tomb Raider, Warner Bros., $1,926,315, 1,673 locations, $1,151 average, $55,070,405, 4 weeks.

  15. Paul, Apostle of Christ, Columbia, $1,772,226, 1,262 locations, $1,404 average, $15,003,077, 3 weeks.

  16. God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness, Pure Flix, $1,094,495, 1,377 locations, $795 average, $4,912,576, 2 weeks.

  17. Game Night, Warner Bros., $1,072,746, 804 locations, $1,334 average, $67,216,416, 7 weeks.

  18. The Death of Stalin, IFC Films, $986,597, 547 locations, $1,804 average, $5,474,211, 5 weeks.

  19. Peter Rabbit, Columbia, $967,606, 1,027 locations, $942 average, $113,277,600, 9 weeks.

  20. The Leisure Seeker. Sony Pictures Classics, $527,339, 353 locations, $1,494 average, $1,769,453, 5 weeks.

MovieStyle on 04/13/2018

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