Box Office Weekend: Fifty Shades of Grey Seeing Green

Controversy can lead to the demise or the rise of many films, good and bad alike. For the highly anticipated (but critically panned) Fifty Shades of Grey, the controversy was enough to make Presidents’ Day Weekend a profitable one, earning an estimated $81.7 million here and nearly $240 million worldwide, making the $40 million production a runaway success. It won out over the much better reviewed Kingsman: The Secret Service, which opened to an estimated $35.6 million and far below its production costs, but whether the spy parody can pick up the slack in later weeks remains up in the air. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water opened its second week with an estimated $30.5 million, and will likely break $100 million by the next weekend.

American Sniper continues to do good business even eight weeks out, earning an estimated $16.4 million and cresting $300 million in domestic revenue (and with its limited release on Christmas 2014, the third highest earning film of last year). One film wishing it was doing as well is Jupiter Ascending, whose $176 million budget is far from covered in any market, an estimated $9.4 million adding to a very mild $32.6 million in domestic earnings; while it may have a life on the cult film circuit, it will not have much of a chance to make back its money before it is out of theaters. Things are not looking good for Seventh Son either, the budget revealed to be a whopping $95 million. The not-so-low-budget fantasy epic only earned an estimated $4.2 million, and has $13.4 million in domestic earnings, but has done far better in foreign markets; more than Jupiter Ascending has made worldwide, actually, though probably not enough to make it a success.

Speaking of revealed budgets, Paddington revealed its costs, and signs are good; while an estimated $4.2 weekend led to a mild $62.3 million in domestic earnings over a $55 million budget, it made $215.6 million worldwide. However, The Imitation Game is still hiding its numbers, but with an estimated $3.5 million weekend, $156.6 million in worldwide gross, and a budget likely less than that of fellow Weinstein Company production Paddington, it too is likely doing quite well for itself. At the bottom, The Wedding Ringer proved a success, an estimated $3.4 million bringing its grand total to $59.7 million over $23 million in costs, while Project Almanac, with only an estimated $2.7 million, has not even broken $20 million in domestic revenue, not boding well for the troubled production.

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Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."

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