Weekend box office: Fifty Shades of Grey holds on to the top spot
America’s fascination with FIFTY SHADES OF GREY continues as the film has managed to take the top spot at the weekend box office for the second week in a row. But there’s a story in the numbers as the film lost a whopping 72% of its audience from its opening weekend haul. So I wouldn’t expect the fascination to last much longer. But it was still good enough to beat out all of the box office newcomers, the best of which was the comedy THE DUFF and MCFARLAND USA which finished in fourth and fifth place respectively. But the most advertised and hyped movie of the weekend was HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2, which couldn’t crack the top five or even break $10 million. It would be easy to blame John Cusack’s absence for the failure, but critics seemed to have hated it and I’m not sure he would have helped anything.
Next week sees the release of FOCUS with Will Smith and Margot Robbie. I’m anxious to see how FOCUS does since it will always be known as the movie that could have starred Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone or Ben Affleck and Kristen Stewart. But Will Smith was at one time the biggest star in the world, so I’m curious to see if audiences show up to see him in what actually looks like a decent film. Aside from FOCUS, we also get the horror film THE LAZARUS EFFECT starring Olivia Wilde. It’s a smaller film, but never count out a lone horror movie at the weekend box office. But my money is still on FOCUS to take the top spot. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. Fifty Shades of Grey $23.2m
2. Kingsman: The Secret Service $17.5m
3. The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water $15.5m
4. McFarland USA $11.3m
5. The Duff $11m
6. American Sniper $9.6m
7. Hot Tub Time Machine 2 $5.8m
8. Jupiter Ascending $3.6m
9. The Imitation Game $2.5m
10. Paddington $2.3m
(Deadline)
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