Predicting The 10 Biggest Box Office Bombs Of 2018
6. Ready Player One
Budget: $150 million (estimated)
Predicted Box Office: $250 million (projected $50 million loss)
Sad as it is to say, this looks like another BFG situation for Steven Spielberg, in that Ready Player One will be broadly well-received by critics, but ultimately fail to latch onto a larger general audience.
Though the marketing is focusing heavily on nostalgia bait - which is usually effective - Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke playing the lead roles won't much help it given their lack of mainstream familiarity, and movies revolving around video games have a pretty sketchy box office history (almost as much as actual video game adaptations themselves).
The acclaimed source material will prevent it from flopping quite as hard as The BFG ($183.3 million against a $140 million price tag), but with Pacific Rim: Uprising releasing the week before, it'll have quite the battle on its hands.