Steven Spielberg on the red carpetImage via DDP/INSTARimages
By
Rahul Malhotra
Published 19 minutes ago
Rahul Malhotra is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.
He has been writing for Collider for over two years, and has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal to introduce audiences to a whole new world of cinema.
Swing and a miss > measured victory. Also, #JusticeForHan. (He/Him). Sign in to your Collider account follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recapSome of the biggest hits of Steven Spielberg's career belong to the sci-fi genre; movies such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jurassic Park, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial have all emerged as massive, record-breaking blockbusters. Even movies such as War of the Worlds and Minority Report did big business, but somehow, the one sci-fi blockbuster that quietly generated more than half-a-billion dollars worldwide rarely enters any discussion about Spielberg's most beloved movies. That's perhaps because the movie in question, Ready Player One, was perceived more as Spielberg's ode to himself than a piece of original blockbuster filmmaking. The movie is now heading to a new streaming home next month, where fans can revisit it and see if it holds up.
Released in 2018, Ready Player One was based on Ernest Cline's best-selling book of the same name, and inspired equally by Spielberg's movies as it was by classic video games and Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Set in a dystopian future where humans prefer being tethered to virtual reality in order to escape society's problems, the film stars Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke in the lead roles, alongside Simon Pegg and Mark Rylance. Ready Player One was produced on a reported budget of $175 million, and it ended up grossing over $600 million worldwide. This was a bigger haul than those of Spielberg's second-tier sci-fi hits, War of the Worlds, Minority Report, and AI: Artificial Intelligence.
Steven Spielberg Is Returning To the Sci-Fi Genre
Ready Player One earned mostly positive reviews, and is now sitting at a "certified fresh" 71% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The platform's consensus reads, "Ready Player One is a sweetly nostalgic thrill ride that neatly encapsulates Spielberg's strengths while adding another solidly engrossing adventure to his filmography." After a few box office duds — West Side Story and The Fabelmans — Spielberg is returning to the sci-fi genre with his mysterious new UFO movie, which stars Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor, among others. The movie will debut theatrically next year, with legendary composer John Williams having recently been confirmed to be reuniting with Spielberg at the age of 93.
You can watch Ready Player One on Prime Video beginning December 30, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Ready Player One
Like Follow Followed PG-13 Adventure Action Science Fiction Release Date March 29, 2018 Runtime 140 minutes Director Steven Spielberg Writers Zak Penn, Ernest Cline Producers Donald De Line, Dan Farah, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven SpielbergCast
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Olivia Cooke
Art3mis / Samantha
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Tye Sheridan
Parzival / Wade
When the creator of a virtual reality called the OASIS dies, he makes a posthumous challenge to all OASIS users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder his fortune and control of his world.
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