“Fifty Shades Freed” Whips the Competition

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT

February 9-11, 2018

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Fifty Shades Freed  $38.8 million
Peter Rabbit $25.0 million
The 15:17 to Paris  $12.6 million
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle  $9.8 million
The Greatest Showman $6.5 million

Things got dark and steamy at the box office once again as Fifty Shades Freed, the final chapter in the trilogy, took the top spot. An estimated $38.8 million is by far the smallest opening in the series of erotic thrillers. The original debuted with a whopping $85.1 million in 2015, while Fifty Shades Darker delivered $46.6 million this time last year. Still, the franchise has made more than $1 billion worldwide, putting it in the same league as the original Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Iron Man films.

Peter Rabbit came in at No. 2. The children's book adaptation got weak reviews, but kids (and the parents paying for those tickets) turned out strongly. That's not surprising considering it's the first big family film of 2018. It should do well as the winter thaws since it won't have much competition. It will eventually overtake the much better-reviewed Paddington 2 in the coming weeks.

The 15:17 to Paris took in less than half that to open at No. 3. The film is based on a real-life act of heroism, and used the actual men who thwarted the terrorist attack in 2015. Critics agreed that was probably a mistake, and the film wasn't as successfully tense as director Clint Eastwood's past efforts. It opened with $12.6 million, which is in line with other biopics like J. Edgar and Jersey Boys, but well below American Sniper and Sully. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle fell only 10 percent, while The Greatest Showman fell near 17 percent. It should pass both Les Misérables and La La Land by next week.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Golden Exits, the latest dramedy from indie darling Alex Ross Perry. It made $12,210 on its lone screen.
  • The three combined Oscar-nominated shorts programs – many of which are also available on VOD – opened on 180 screens and made just $615,000.
  • Though it opened the second-latest of all the Best Picture nominees, The Post has gotten the biggest boost for its nomination. The drama about the Pentagon Papers has made $72 million so far, making it the third highest-grossing of the nominees, behind 2017's massive hits Dunkirk and Get Out.

Next week:

The time has come to crown a new king. Black Panther, one of the most anticipated comic book movies of all time, opens amid a flurry of hype. It will be No. 1, and by far the biggest debut of 2018 yet. The only question is how high will it open? Early tracking suggests it's got the highest advance ticket sales of any comic book movie ever. I think that may not be an entirely accurate way to estimate, so I'm predicting an opening slightly on the lower side, around $160 million. That would still be massive, especially for a lesser-known character. I'm probably undershooting it.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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