Last week’s second-weekend drop was no blip for Fifty Shades Of Grey: after the furore of its initial launch, the film has begun to fall quickly down the charts. Taking its place this weekend was the new Will Smith con drama Focus, which arrived to a relatively meagre $19.1 million despite a hefty ad campaign. With a $50 million plus budget to recoup, the movie will have to pull some financial tricks of its own to see a big profit.
Kingsman: The Secret Service held on to second place, adding $11.7 million to its coffers and boosting its domestic total to $85.6 million. With more than $209 million worldwide already, it appears we may well be making a second visit to the spy universe in future – let’s hope the cast is really ready for what Matthew Vaughn apparently has planned. Also staying around was The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water, which itself took in $11.2 million despite spending four weeks in the charts. The film has more than $140 million in the bank across the pond so far.
Fifty Shades fell to fourth place with $10.9 million, but continues to do solid business both in the States and around the world. The movie now stands as Universal’s most successful R-rated drama internationally, edging ever closer to $500 million globally. Expect the announcement about **Fifty Shades Darker **as soon as the apparent behind-the-scenes wrangling has been sorted. Low-budget horror **The Lazarus Effect **arrived in fifth place, making $10.6 million but benefiting from a thrifty initial outlay of $3.3 million.
Kevin Costner’s latest foray into sports drama, McFarland, USA, fell from fourth to sixth with $7.79 million, while American Sniper dropped one place to seventh and $7.7 million. High school comedy The DUFF was eighth, earning $7.1 million, while Still Alice benefitted from Julianne Moore’s Oscar victory, rising two places to ninth with $2.7 million.** Hot Tub Time Machine 2 **continued to sink, landing 10th with $2.4 million.
To see Will Smith con the rest of the new movies out of their winnings in the full chart listings, head to Box Office Mojo.