Weekend box office: Fifty Shades of Grey breaks records
Although FIFTY SHADES OF GREY has been hilariously panned by critics, the film managed to find a huge amount of success at the weekend box office and is on pace to set the opening February weekend record, taking the crown from PASSION OF THE CHRIST, which holds the record with $83.8 million. Even if it doesn’t manage to break that record, it still holds the highest ever Valentine’s weekend opening ever and one of the biggest R-rated openings. I never like it when a terrible movie does well at the box office, but I love the fact that FIFTY SHADES OF GREY only appeals to females and really, only to females that have read the book. That’s a good sign for Hollywood that they can have success marketing movies to someone other than adolescent boys. The other new movie of the weekend was KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (click the link to read our review), which also did quite well, hauling in about $35 million on its opening weekend. Kingsman was generally well liked by critics, despite rehashing things we’ve seen before. Overall, Hollywood should be very excited about how well the box office is performing in 2015.
Next week sees the release of HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2, which looks hilarious. I loved the first one and even though John Cusack isn’t returning for the sequel, I realized when I watched the original again that the movie was funny in spite of him, not because of him. So the sequel shouldn’t miss a beat. We also get Kevin Costner’s latest MCFARLAND, USA, which will once again show how open minded and cool Costner is. But if we’re being honest, neither film is going to challenge FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, which should easily take the top spot. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final and are for the three day weekend only.
1. Fifty Shades of Grey $81.6m
2. Kingsman: The Secret Service $35.6m
3. The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water $30.5m
4. American Sniper $16.4m
5. Jupiter Ascending $9.4m
6. Paddington $4.1m
7. Seventh Son $4.1m
8. Imitation Game $3.5m
9. The Wedding Ringer $3.4m
10. Project Almanac $2.7m
(Deadline)
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