'Fifty Shades' still dominant at box office
In its second weekend, Fifty Shades of Grey aroused enough interest to finish at No. 1 again.
The film adaptation of E.L. James' steamy S&M drama grossed $23.2 million, according to studio estimates from ticket-sales firm Rentrak. While that's a steep 73% drop from last weekend's record-setting $81.7 million, it should hardly be seen as a disappointment.
"The film is now over $400 million worldwide," says Rentrak's Paul Dergarabedian. "It's an unqualified, out-and-out success. That second-week drop gets relegated to the who-cares category. This movie was a sprinter out of the gate, posting the biggest opening weekend ever for February and becoming a worldwide phenomenon the minute it was released."
All three of the previous weekend's top films held the same spots a second time. Fox's R-rated action drama Kingsman: The Secret Service stayed strong with $17.5 million, bringing its total revenue to more than $67 million through Sunday. SpongeBob Squarepants: Sponge Out of Water held on to the No. 3 spot, earning $15.5 million, for a 17-day North American gross of $125.2 million.
Two new releases, Kevin Costner's track-and-field McFarland, USA, and teen movie The DUFF, went neck and neck for the fourth-place spot. Costner's film pulled $11.3 million, doing better out of the gate than his Draft Day, which debuted with $9.78 million last April. McFarland also was a success with critics and audiences, earning a 77% rating from Rotten Tomatoes and an A grade from audiences via Cinemascore.
"These movies were not expected to break the bank," says Dergarabedian, "but they both did respectably well. They were audience favorites, and that's important. It's not about them trying to be No. 1 hits, it's about trying to develop their audiences over time."
The DUFF, based on the novel by Kody Keplinger, made $11 million. It drew mixed reviews from critics (62% on Rotten Tomatoes) but earned an A-minus grade from its mostly female audience via Cinemascore.
"The DUFF surprised people and beat expectations quite a bit," says BoxOffice.com analyst Phil Contrino. "That's definitely a victory for CBS Films. Teenagers are a fickle audience, obviously, but they did an aggressive marketing on social media platforms. It seems to have worked, because the word of mouth is definitely taking off."
American Sniper had the best Oscar weekend performance of any of the best-picture nominees, coming in sixth with $9.65 million, bringing its estimated North American cumulative total to $319.6 million.
Paramount's Hot Tub Time Machine 2 finished in seventh place, taking in just $5.8 million. That's less than half the $14 million opening weekend for the original in 2010. Given the sequel's dismal 14% rating from critics at Rotten Tomatoes and its tepid C-minus CinemaScore grade, it may have a difficult time matching the original's $50.3 million gross.
Final numbers are expected Monday.