Weekend Box Office: Ninety Four Million Shades of Green

During the Valentine’s Day weekend, viewers sought pain and pleasure over the rest of the competition. However, the counter-programming saw its own share of success. This weekend’s Top 12 movies collectively brought in more ticket sales than any weekend since November 2013.

Of course, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey came in first place. Just like the ‘Twilight’ series, despite being poorly reviewed, fans of the book showed up in droves to see the steamy big screen adaptation. Over the three-day weekend, the film whipped up $85 million, making it the biggest ever February release and the fourth-highest opening for an R-rated title. (‘The Matrix Reloaded’, ‘American Sniper’ and ‘The Hangover Part II’ still have it beat.) When you add in Monday’s President’s Day totals with the weekend numbers, the $40 million S&M flick had a very lucrative $94.3 million four-day debut. That said, even with its great numbers and broken records, book adaptations like this are typically front heavy. Although ready to cross the $100 million mark, it’s unlikely that ‘Fifty Shades’ bows with more than $170 million.

Even more noteworthy than the U.S. box office totals are the international numbers. ‘Grey’ quickly became the highest opening R-rated movie of all time overseas, grossing $158 million from 58 markets. It has set opening records in eleven markets and still has yet to debut in several more. Expected to also have a front-loaded international release, the movie is still predicted to earn more than $300 million from international showings. Over the last four days, it has brought Universal $266.3 million worldwide.

Coming in at a distant second place was place Matthew Vaughn’s high-octane action flick ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service‘. Over the three-day weekend, the comic book adaptation scored $36.2 million. Solid reviews, a suave and stylized marketing campaign and good word-of-mouth helped its four-day total spring up to $42 million.

‘Kingsman’ expanded its international run to 38 markets and will move into 24 additional markets this coming weekend. It grossed $21.3 million this weekend, even eclipsing Vaughn’s ‘X-Men: First Class’ in a few markets. Its international total now sits at $43.8 million, giving it a worldwide total of $85.8 million.

Third place went to last weekend’s top title. ‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water‘ had a 42% decline, which is much steeper than most family films. It absorbed $36.2 million over the three-day weekend. Including Monday’s box office, it earned $40 million over the long weekend and now sits with a domestic eleven-day total of $103.1 million. ‘SpongeBob’ is now expected to close around the $150 million mark.

American Sniper‘ had a 29% drop over the three-day weekend and slipped to the #4 spot with $16.5 million ($19.4 million if you include Monday’s box office). The Oscar nominee now sits with a domestic total of $304.2 million.

Rounding out the Top 5 was last weekend’s flop ‘Jupiter Ascending‘. Slipping nearly 50% over the three-day weekend, the Wachowskis’ sci-fi fantasy flick grossed $9.2 million ($10.6 million with Monday’s numbers). Its eleven-day domestic total is $33.8 million. At this point, the costly $176 million picture is likely to bow with only $50 million.

Jemaine Clement’s vampire mockumentary ‘What We Do In the Shadows‘ opened at two locations with $65,800 ($32,900 per screen) over the three-day weekend. Including Monday’s box office, that goes to $83,600. The successful limited debut will push it into the Top 25 markets by February’s end.

The cinematic adaptation of the off-Broadway musical ‘The Last Five Years‘ opened at three locations concurrently with streaming VOD services. Digital numbers have not been announced, but the Anna Kendrick vehicle brought in $42,000 over the three-day weekend and $49,500 over the long weekend, translating to respective $14,000 and $16,500 per-screen-averages.

Top 10 (three-day totals):

1. ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ (Universal) – $85,043,000

2. ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ (Fox) – $36,225,000

3. ‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water’ (Paramount) – $31,680,000

4. ‘American Sniper’ (Warner Bros.) – $16,530,000

5. ‘Jupiter Ascending’ (Warner Bros.) – $9,240,000

6. ‘Seventh Son’ (Universal) – $4,139,000

7. ‘Paddington’ (Weinstein/Dimension) – $4,033,000

8. ‘The Imitation Game’ (Weinstein) – $3,484,000

9. ‘The Wedding Ringer’ (Screen Gems) – $3,200,000

10. ‘Project Almanac’ (Paramount) – $2,763,000

Top 10 (four-day totals):

1. ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ (Universal) – $94,395,000

2. ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ (Fox) – $42,000,000

3. ‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water’ (Paramount) – $40,000,000

4. ‘American Sniper’ (Warner Bros.) – $19,460,000

5. ‘Jupiter Ascending’ (Warner Bros.) – $10,680,000

6. ‘Paddington’ (Weinstein/Dimension) – $5,375,000

7. ‘Seventh Son’ (Universal) – $4,756,000

8. ‘The Imitation Game’ (Weinstein) – $4,095,000

9. ‘The Wedding Ringer’ (Screen Gems) – $3,700,000

10. ‘Project Almanac’ (Paramount) – $3,260,000

1 comment

  1. William Henley

    Wow, that is really sad for Jupiter Ascending. I was going to go see it this past weekend, but ended up seeing Seventh Son. THAT was a disappointment. The movie felt like they gave a bunch of people a script, didn’t let them rehearse together, and then decided that they were going to film the actors seperately from each other, with different directors, and then just dump all the raw footage on a film editor with no instructions other than “put it together”. The movie was a mess. I sat through the entire movie, and still don’t know what it is about. Apparently some witch is mad at some guy because he fell in love with some other girl. That is really all I got out of the movie.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *