Weekend Wrap-Up
by Tim Briody
February 11, 2018
Audiences knew the safe word this weekend as the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise mercifully came to a non-dominating conclusion.
For the first time this year, 2018 releases take up the top three spots at the box office, though that’s mainly because time is finally catching up with the holiday leftovers. We finally get our first true blockbuster of 2018 next weekend in Black Panther, and after this weekend, audiences are clearly ready.
Fifty Shades Freed is indeed the #1 film of the weekend, taking in $38.8 million on the weekend. That’s a 16.7% decline from Fifty Shades Darker (released on this same weekend last year), and both films are of course way off of Fifty Shades of Grey’s $85.1 million from 2015. I’ll admit the drop is a little smaller than I anticipated; I was figuring a weekend closer to the $30 million mark considering the huge drop between the first and second movies as people opt to wait for Netflix to get this one rather than buy a ticket. Despite huge declines on subsequent weekends, Fifty Shades Darker still managed $114.3 million and if Freed follows the same trajectory, it lands at $95.1 million. The franchise’s attempt to go three for three at hitting $100 million is the only other interesting thing about Fifty Shades Freed, other than watching its Wednesday box office this week. Fifty Shades Darker spiked massively midweek on February 14th last year (a Tuesday), so expect the same here, followed by the weekend total falling off a cliff.
Peter Rabbit brings an end to Jumanji’s monopoly on family entertainment, landing with a pretty decent $25 million for the weekend. The CGI mixed with live action entry had a solid voice cast (including James Corden as Peter Rabbit, Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie and Elizabeth Debicki) and apparently better marketing than Paddington 2 to overcome its 58% Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes (it was a miserable weekend for reviews all around, but two of the three new releases were pretty review-proof). It should have a decent hold next weekend as President’s Day is favorable to kids movies.
Clint Eastwood’s The 15:17 to Paris stumbles with $12.6 million for the weekend, but it’s still good enough for third place. Awful reviews (20% Fresh, but still better than Fifty Shades Freed’s 11%), a telling of an incident that most Americans probably forgot happened (because it didn’t happen on American soil) and a stunt casting gimmick (the three Americans who suppressed the gunman play themselves), combined for a weak opening for an Eastwood movie. Not that he’s bulletproof, but his last two efforts, Sully and American Sniper were both big hits. Prior to that, he took Jersey Boys to $47 million after a $13.3 million opening, but that opened in the summer and was based off the Broadway musical. Getting to $40 million might be a stretch at this point.
We’re headed into Valentine’s Day and we’re still talking about Christmas releases. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle drops to fourth place on the weekend after jumping back to #1 last weekend, but still declines only 10% from last weekend despite direct competition to $9.8 million. This is getting ridiculous. In its eighth weekend, Jumanji has now earned $365.6 million. It’s less than $10 million away from becoming Sony’s second highest grossing film of all time, ahead of Spider-Man 2’s $373.5 million and behind Spider-Man’s $403.7 million. If they didn’t get everyone in the main cast signed for a sequel before this, it’s going to cost them a lot to bring them back now.
The Greatest Showman also continues its run as one of the leggiest films of the modern era, dropping 17% in its eighth weekend to $6.4 million and $146.3 million to date. We all knew this was going to happen when it opened in 3,000 theaters on the Wednesday before Christmas to just $2.4 million.
The Maze Runner: The Death Cure places sixth with $6 million, down 43% and $49 million after three weekends. It lags well behind The Scorch Trials at this same point, as the second entry had $63.3 million in the bank at this same point. As this weekend’s box office shows, being the third book in a series is usually not a great place to be.
Winchester drops 46% from opening weekend to $5 million and $17.1 million after two weekends. The horror entry with Helen Mirren manages to drop less than 50%, but this is the last weekend of its box office relevancy.
The Post is in eighth place with $3.5 million (off 33% from last weekend) and $72.8 million to date. The Oscar nominee is a solid performer, no surprise here given the above the line names involved (Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and director Steven Spielberg).
Leading Oscar nominee The Shape of Water adds $3 million in its third weekend of wide release (down 33% from last week) and has earned $49.7 million so far, which is pretty decent considering it’s weird as hell. It lost a few hundred screens this weekend, and all the major nominees won’t be box office factors by the time we get to the awards at the end of the month.
Den of Thieves hangs on to the tenth spot with $2.8 million and $40.9 million after four weekends in theaters. Made for $30 million, it’s looking like a win for STX Entertainment.
The top 12 films this weekend earned $118.4 million, way off from last year’s $174.2 million, when in addition to Fifty Shades Darker, The Lego Batman movie earned $53 million and John Wick Chapter 2 earned $30.4 million. The quiet this weekend was generally expected; next week, expect Black Panther to blow the doors off the place.
|
Top Ten for Weekend of February 9-11, 2018
|
Rank |
Film |
Distributor |
Estimated
Gross ($) |
Weekly Change |
Cumulative
Gross ($) |
|
1
|
Fifty Shades Freed
|
Universal
|
38.8
|
New
|
38.8
|
|
2
|
Peter Rabbit
|
Sony
|
25.0
|
New
|
25.0
|
|
3
|
The 15:17 to Paris
|
Warner Bros.
|
12.6
|
New
|
12.6
|
|
4
|
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
|
Sony
|
9.8
|
-10%
|
365.6
|
|
5
|
The Greatest Showman
|
20th Century Fox
|
6.4
|
-17%
|
146.5
|
|
6
|
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
|
20th Century Fox
|
6.0
|
-43%
|
49.0
|
|
7
|
Winchester
|
CBS Films
|
5.0
|
-46%
|
17.1
|
|
8
|
The Post
|
20th Century Fox
|
3.5
|
-33%
|
72.8
|
|
9
|
The Shape of Water
|
Fox Searchlight
|
3.0
|
-33%
|
49.7
|
|
10
|
Den of Thieves
|
STX Entertainment
|
2.8
|
-37%
|
40.9
|
|
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
|
|
|
|
|
Print this column
