So, unsurprisingly (at least to me), Fifty Shades of Grey fell off a cliff this weekend, falling 73%, thanks to the crappy Cinemascore and also without a Valentine's Day boost, which brings its total to $130 million, and it will likely struggle to reach $200 million now. But obviously it wasn't made on a massive budget, so few tears are being shed behind the scenes. Even fewer when you see that its worldwide total comes to a staggering $410 million already (I didn't realize these books were a worldwide success too?). That's pretty insane. Meanwhile, the other new release, Hot Tub Time Machine 2, turned out to be an epic flop, earning just $5 million over the weekend, so I guess this was a sequel that very few people wanted to see.
Kevin Costner's McFarland, USA pulled in a respectable $11 million, while Mae Whitman's teen comedy The Duff also came in with a decent $11 million, thanks to good reviews, so that could turn into a minor success, having been produced for just $8.5 million. Also in the top five was Kingsman: Secret Service, which held a bit better than 50 Shades at No. 2, earning $17.5 million over this Oscar weekend, as SpongeBob came in at No. 3 with $15 million. The family movie has now earned over $125 million in a successful 3D relaunch of the SpongeBob franchise.
Top 5:
- 50 Shades of Grey- $23.2 million
- Kingsman: Secret Service- $17.5 million
- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water- $15.5 million
- McFarland, USA- $11.3 million
- The Duff- $11 million
Meanwhile, American Sniper made another $9.6 million, which means the smash has now grossed $319 million and is the biggest Oscar nominee since 2009's Toy Story 3, believe it or not. Next week it's the Will Smith-Margot Robbie heist flick Focus, which is looking to be Will Smith's first hit since the failure of After Earth, while the Oscars will officially be over after this weekend, a season that didn't bring a huge boost to many of the nominated films, since most of them were low earning indies (besides Sniper of course). Tune in tonight to find out what wins Best Picture, everyone!
