Weekend Box Office: ‘Grey’ Is All Foreplay, No Stamina

As expected, ‘Fifty Shades’ topped the box office for a second weekend. However, it did so with a huge week-to-week dropoff. For better or worse, this weekend’s new releases also defied expectations.

Inititial estimates predicted that ‘Fifty Shades of Grey‘ would have a sixty-something percent decline, but the extremely front-loaded flick actually plummeted a staggering 72%. It opened last week to $85.1 million, but only grossed $23.2 million this week. Budgeted at $40 million, the film now sits with a $130.1 million total after ten days. Although its domestic decline has been brutal, ‘Grey’ continues to dominate the foreign box office. Coming in at #1 in more than 50 international markets, it has now pulled in $280.5 million overseas for a worldwide total of $410.6 million.

Even after falling 51%, Matthew Vaughn’s wild action flick ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service‘ held onto its second place rank during its sophomore weekend. The R-rated comic book movie added another $17.5 million to its domestic run, which now amounts to a ten-day total of $67.1 million. Internationally, ‘Kingsman’ has earned $86.4 million and has a worldwide gross of $153.5 million.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water‘ also retained its position, closing out its third week in the #3 spot. Slipping 50%, it added another $15.5 million and brought its 17-day total up to $125.1 million.

Of the weekend’s three major new releases, the best performer was Disney’s latest sports drama, ‘McFarland, USA‘. Coming in at fourth place, the Kevin Costner vehicle debuted to $11.3 million. Estimated to only earn $8.7 million, its 30% increase was a pretty solid victory for the small picture.

Similarly, Lionsgate’s teen comedy ‘The DUFF‘ played better than expected. Predicted to only gross $9 million, it closed out the weekend in the #5 spot with $11 million.

On the other hand, ‘Hot Tub Time Machine 2‘ floundered. Estimated to open in the mid-teens, the comedy sequel only managed $5.8 million and splashed down in the #8 spot. With an awful CinemaScore and an even worse Rotten Tomatoes rating, the movie had a per-screen average of only $2,014.

On the indie front, the Oscar-nominated foreign-language film ‘Wild Tales‘ scored $85,100 from four locations. That $21,275 per-screen average is a solid start for this acclaimed black comedy.

Top 10

1′.Fifty Shades of Grey’ (Universal) – $23,246,000

2. ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ (Fox) – $17,525,000

3. ‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water’ (Paramount) – $15,500,000

4. ‘McFarland, USA’ (Buena Vista) – $11,315,000

5. ‘The DUFF’ (Lionsgate) – $11,025,000

6. ‘American Sniper’ (Warner Bros.) – $9,650,000

7. ‘Hot Tub Time Machine 2’ (Warner Bros.) – $5,800,000

8. ‘Jupiter Ascending’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,660,000

9. ‘The Imitation Game’ (Weinstein) – $2,565,000

10. ‘Paddington’ (Weinstein/Dimension) – $2,289,000

Leave a Reply

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