Fifty Shades drops 73%; still No. 1

Patrick Star (from left), Mr. Krabs, Squidward Tentacles and SpongeBob SquarePants star in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. It came in third at last weekend’s box office and made about $16.6 million.
Patrick Star (from left), Mr. Krabs, Squidward Tentacles and SpongeBob SquarePants star in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. It came in third at last weekend’s box office and made about $16.6 million.

LOS ANGELES -- Fifty Shades of Grey ticket sales dropped 73 percent from its opening, but an estimated $22.3 million second-weekend gross was good enough to win the box office race and push the movie's domestic haul so far to about $129 million.

Though a decline was expected, the film fell short of projections of about $30 million for the weekend.

Fifty Shades, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and based on E.L. James' erotic novel, joined the ranks of films that plunged after big openings. For example, The Twilight Saga: New Moon fell 70 percent in its second weekend in release in 2009. Valentine's Day also fell 70 percent from its opening weekend in 2010.

Still, Fifty Shades, which cost about $40 million to make, is a win for Universal. The R-rated film follows kinky billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and his love interest Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson). It debuted to $94.4 million over the four-day Valentine's Day/Washington's Birthday weekend.

It has also been a huge hit overseas, pulling in $280.5 million in 58 regions at the international box office. The total worldwide haul is $410.6 million.

With several robust openings in the past two months, the overall box office so far this year is up 10 percent from the same period last year.

Disney's McFarland, USA debuted in fourth place with about $11 million, and the teen comedy The DUFF debuted in fifth with about $10.8 million. Both exceeded tracking expectations of $7 million to $9 million.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2, however, did not fare as well. It fell short of $15 million tracking expectations and opened at No. 7 with about $6 million.

McFarland, USA was deemed a success given it cost only $25 million to make.

"Making these kinds of stories about real people is such an important thing," said Davis Hollis, Disney's distribution chief.

The film is based on the 1987 true story about runners from a town in California's Central Valley who trained on a cross-country team under coach Jim White (Kevin Costner).

Audiences were evenly divided by sex.

The film earned an A grade from audience polling firm CinemaScore and a 77 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The DUFF, released by Lionsgate and CBS Films, is based on the novel by Kody Keplinger. The film follows high school student Bianca (Mae Whitman of Parenthood) as she makes herself over to no longer be a "designated ugly fat friend."

The teen comedy earned an A-minus grade from CinemaScore and decent reviews from critics. An estimated 75 percent of the audience was female, and 68 percent were younger than 25.

"There was nothing probably since Into the Woods back in December that was out for our core audience of females under 25," said David Spitz, Lionsgate's executive vice president and general sales manager of theatrical domestic distribution

The comedy is expected to play well in the coming weeks.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2, released by Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, had been expected to debut with up to $15 million. The film, which cost about $14 million to make, reunites Lou (Rob Corddry), Nick (Craig Robinson) and Jacob (Clark Duke) as they fire up the hot tub time machine again but this time land in the future. Adam Scott joins the cast.

"It's pretty disappointing," said Megan Colligan, Paramount's president of worldwide marketing and distribution. "We underperformed our tracking. It was a little hard to see coming."

The film earned a C-minus grade from CinemaScore and mostly poor reviews. An estimated 63 percent of moviegoers were male, and 76 percent were older than 25.

Colligan said cold weather may have been a factor in the film's performance, especially among East Coast moviegoers.

"It happens every once in a while," she said. "This isn't what we'd hope it would be ... but [the film] is an easy, fun time at the movies."

Kingsman: The Secret Service finished second for the weekend and added $18.3 million, raising its total haul to about $68 million. It fell 52 percent in its second weekend.

Based on a comic book, the 20th Century Fox film follows a street kid (Taron Egerton) after Harry Hart (Colin Firth) recruits him into a secret spy organization. Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Caine also star in the film.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Sponge Out of Water, which came in third place, fell about 51 percent in its third weekend. The family film added about $16.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $126 million.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Sunday by Rentrak:

  1. Fifty Shades of Grey, Universal, $22,259,030, 3,655 locations, $6,090 average, $129,161,540, two weeks.

  2. Kingsman: The Secret Service, 20th Century Fox, $18,346,023, 3,266 locations, $5,617 average, $67,926,972, two weeks.

  3. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, Paramount, $16,573,682, 3,680 locations, $4,504 average, $126,245,516, three weeks.

  4. McFarland, USA, Disney, $11,020,798, 2,755 locations, $4,000 average, $11,020,798, one week.

  5. The DUFF, Lionsgate, $10,809,149, 2,575 locations, $4,198 average, $10,809,149, one week.

  6. American Sniper, Warner Bros., $10,052,447, 3,235 locations, $3,107 average, $320,009,626, nine weeks.

  7. Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Paramount, $5,963,324, 2,880 locations, $2,071 average, $5,963,324, one week.

  8. Jupiter Ascending, Warner Bros., $3,805,317, 2,503 locations, $1,520 average, $39,662,296, three weeks.

  9. The Imitation Game, The Weinstein Co., $2,527,637, 1,408 locations, $1,795 average, $83,883,539, 13 weeks.

  10. Paddington, The Weinstein Co., $2,444,684, 1,837 locations, $1,331 average, $67,816,450, six weeks.

  11. Still Alice, Sony Pictures Classics, $2,166,967, 765 locations, $2,833 average, $7,963,756, six weeks.

  12. The Wedding Ringer, Columbia, $1,293,378, 950 locations, $1,361 average, $61,989,771, six weeks.

  13. Black or White, Relativity Media, $1,042,170, 1,166 locations, $894 average, $19,647,036, four weeks.

  14. Seventh Son, Universal, $967,700, 1,019 locations, $950 average, $16,043,235, three weeks.

  15. Birdman, Fox Searchlight, $877,586, 407 locations, $2,156 average, $37,780,892, 19 weeks.

  16. Project Almanac, Paramount, $835,154, 828 locations, $1,009 average, $21,473,530, four weeks.

  17. Selma, Paramount, $622,308, 412 locations, $1,510 average, $49,550,204, nine weeks.

  18. Whiplash, Sony Pictures Classics, $570,465, 440 locations, $1,297 average, $11,330,787, 20 weeks.

  19. The Theory of Everything, Focus Features, $553,819, 545 locations, $1,016 average, $34,132,997, 16 weeks.

  20. Big Hero 6, Disney, $540,213, 292 locations, $1,850 average, $220,212,093, 16 weeks.

MovieStyle on 02/27/2015

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