Weekend Report: 'Grey' Makes Green Over Valentine's Day Weekend
by Ray Subers --- February 15, 2015
Around-the-World Roundup: 'Fifty Shades' Opens to Massive $158 Million Overseas
by Ray Subers
by Ray Subers --- February 15, 2015
The highly-anticipated big-screen adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey scored one of the biggest R-rated debuts ever this weekend, while Kingsman: The Secret Service was strong in second place.
Fifty Shades was even more impressive at the international box office, where it opened to a stunning $158 million. For full overseas coverage, check out this weekend's Around-the-World Roundup.
The domestic box office Top 12 earned an estimated $196 million, which makes this the biggest weekend ever in February.
Playing at 3,646 theaters—the widest opening ever for an R-rated movie—Fifty Shades of Grey scored an estimated $81.7 million over the three-day weekend. That ranks second all-time in the month of February behind The Passion of the Christ; among R-rated movies, it ranks fifth behind The Matrix Reloaded, American Sniper, The Hangover Part II and The Passion.
Fifty Shades also opened noticeably higher than the first Twilight movie, which took in $69.6 million in its first weekend back in 2008. Adjusting for ticket price inflation, it looks like the two movies had roughly the same initial attendance.
The movie's impressive debut doesn't come as a total surprise: as Universal readily pointed out in recent advertisements, the book upon which its based has sold over 100 million copies worldwide, which makes this a true literary phenomenon. Still, there was always a risk that those who read the book in private wouldn't be as willing to watch the movie's more explicit scenes in public.
Universal's marketing campaign addressed that issue by focusing on the romance over the sadomasochism, while also subtly suggesting there was more to see (if, of course, you bought a ticket). That strategy was more or less effective, though there's reason to believe a significant number of older book readers stayed away; specifically, Universal's exit polling indicated that 42 percent of the audience was under 25 years of age, which seems a bit high.
The success of Fifty Shades of Grey can also be attributed to a very smart scheduling decision. Originally, the movie was set to open in August 2014, but the start of production was delayed to the point where that date was no longer feasible. Instead of picking another fairly arbitrary date, Universal staked a claim to Valentine's Day. That move seems to have paid off, as the movie set a new Valentine's Day record with a massive $36.7 million (over 50 percent higher than the previous record). A chunk of that surely came from date night crowds; in general, men represented 32 percent of the Fifty Shades audience, which has to be significantly higher than the male share of book readers.
It's worth keeping in mind, of course, that the movie will almost certainly drop off quickly from here. Female-skewing literary adaptations tend to be fairly front-loaded—the Twilight sequels being the most radical version of this—as do romances that open over Valentine's Day weekend. Add in the fact that it's receiving mixed word-of-mouth ("C+" CinemaScore), and it's hard to see how Fifty Shades of Grey reaches $200 million.
A good comparison is Valentine's Day, which did 51 percent of its total business on this same weekend in 2010. If Fifty Shades performs similarly, it will ends its run with around $160 million.
Kingsman: The Secret Service was arguably more impressive than Fifty Shades of Grey this weekend. Playing at 3,204 locations, the comic book adaptation opened to an estimated $35.6 million, which is in the same ballpark as recent action movies Taken 3 ($39.2 million) and The Equalizer ($34.1 million).
For the four-day weekend, it will likely wind up over $40 million, which trounces past President's Day titles like The Wolfman, Constantine, Jumper, and A Good Day to Die Hard.
Fox's decision to schedule Kingsman against Fifty Shades of Grey raised some eyebrows: was it really possible for this R-rated action movie to make money against the Valentine's Day juggernaut that is Fifty Shades? In hindsight, this seems like a particularly savvy move: by providing such a stark contrast, the movie wound up being the de facto counter choice over the holiday weekend.
Of course, scheduling alone won't do the trick—the movie also needs to seem like it delivers the goods, which Kingsman seemed to do. The movie looked like a lot of fun, and had a wave of strong buzz thanks to Fox's aggressive pre-screening program.
The movie also benefited from the fact that it fit equally in to two genres that are near their peak right now: comic book adaptations and spy movies. In particularly, Kingsman got a lot of mileage out of the critic quote "More Badass Than Bond," which is surely helped by the fact that 007 is coming off his most-successful outing in decades.
Kingsman received a "B+" CinemaScore, which aligns nicely with its 71 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie should hold decently in the coming weeks, and has a solid chance of ultimately reaching $100 million.
After a surprisingly strong debut last weekend, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water fell 45 percent to an estimated $30.5 million this weekend. That's a fairly steep drop for a movie like this; in comparison, The LEGO Movie was off 28 percent on the same weekend last year. Still, the movie is poised to pass $100 million on Monday, and should ultimately reach $150 million before the end of its run.
American Sniper eased 29 percent to $16.4 million, which ranks eighth all-time among fifth weekends. On Sunday, it passed $300 million, and remains on track to ultimately become the highest-grossing movie from 2014 with over $340 million.
Jupiter Ascending rounded out the Top Five with an estimated $9.4 million, which is off 49 percent from last weekend. The big-budget sci-fi flick has so far earned $32.6 million, and still has an off-chance of ultimately reaching $50 million. Meanwhile, Seventh Son dropped 43 percent to $4.15 million, which brings its total to a meager $13.4 million.
After nearly a month in limited release, Still Alice expanded to 502 locations and earned an estimated $1.71 million. To date, the movie has grossed $4.63 million; with Julianne Moore pegged as a sure thing to win the Best Actress Oscar next Sunday, Still Alice should continue to hold well in the weeks to come.
Old Fashioned, a Christian romance that was positioned as Fifty Shades counter-programming, earned an estimated $1.1 million at 224 locations. That seems to be the biggest weekend ever for a faith-based movie playing at fewer than 300 theaters, and should be considered a decent result for distributor Freestyle Releasing.
What We Do in the Shadows opened to an excellent $65,800 at two locations, which translates to a $32,900 per-theater average. The movie played on a single screen at each location, and nearly all its shows were sell outs. The well-reviewed vampire comedy will expand to the top 25 markets by the end of the month.
Musical The Last 5 Years earned an estimated $45,100 through three locations this weekend. It was also available on video-on-demand, though those numbers aren't currently available.
Around-the-World Roundup: 'Fifty Shades' Opens to Massive $158 Million Overseas
by Ray Subers
In a somewhat surprising development, Fifty Shades of Grey is proving to be even more of a phenomenon internationally than it is in the U.S.
The movie earned a stunning $158 million from 58 markets this weekend. That's the second-biggest weekend ever for Universal Pictures International (behind Fast & Furious 6), and included their biggest single day ever (Valentine's Day at $55.1 million).
The movie set opening weekend records in 11 markets, including Italy ($9.1 million), Argentina and Poland. It also set a record for Universal Pictures in the U.K. ($21.1 million), France ($12 million), Russia ($10.5 million) and Brazil ($8.9 million). Other key markets include Germany ($15.2 million), Australia ($8.6 million), Mexico ($8.1 million) and Spain ($7.9 million).
The movie has a few more markets left to open, including South Korea later this month. It will be interesting to see how it holds up in the coming weeks; even if it drops like a rock, though, it should still wind up well over $300 million. For comparison, the biggest R-rated movies internationally are The Matrix Reloaded ($461 million), Troy ($364 million), The Hangover Part II ($332 million) and Ted ($331 million).
In a distant second place, Kingsman: The Secret Service expanded to a total of 38 markets and earned an estimated $23.1 million this weekend. It opened to $5.4 million in South Korea and $3.6 million in Russia, both of which were above X-Men: First Class. To date, Kingsman has earned $43.8 million overseas, and is set to reach another 24 markets next weekend.
In its second weekend, Jupiter Ascending fell 54 percent to an estimated $15.6 million. The movie has now grossed $58.9 million overseas, and still has Australia, China and Japan on the way.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water added $13.5 million from 29 markets, which brings its total to $46.3 million. It had a solid $3.1 million debut in Russia; next weekend, the movie expands in to France, South Korea and Germany.
