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Box Office Report: Fifty Shades Of Grey Dominates Valentine’s Day Frame

The studio executive that decided to release the big-screen adaptation of erotic best-seller Fifty Shades of Grey over the weekend of Valentine's Day should see a healthy raise this week, as the R-rated romantic drama saw many of the book's fans and curious moviegoers come out in droves. The film earned an estimated $81.7 million in its first three days, although close to half of that came from Valentine's Day sales alone. Currently, Fifty Shades of Grey stands as the second-biggest February opening of all time (after The Passion of the Christ's $83.8 million), although it sold fewer tickets than 2001's Hannibal when that thriller opened to $58 million 14 Februarys ago.

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After a splashy opening weekend, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water had a drop similar to the first film featuring the square-pantsed hero. SpongeBob fell 45% to third place to gross an estimated $30.5 million. With $93.7 million, the animated comedy has already outgrossed The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, which brought in $85.4 million in 2004, when ticket prices were lower. Regardless, this new installment should ultimately sell more tickets, and should still pass the $150 million mark by the end of its run. (Over the four-day weekend, the film is expected to bring in $37.6 million, which would catapult it over $100 million.)

Meanwhile, despite hefty competition from two R-rated openers, American Sniper also had a strong Valentine’s Day turnout, and dropped only 29% to take in another $16.4 million. That is the eighth-biggest fifth weekend of all time. This weekend, the Oscar-nominated drama joined The Passion of the Christ as only the second R-rated film to surpass the $300 million mark domestically. Although chances of surpassing Mel Gibson’s controversial drama are slim, Sniper is still poised to become 2014’s highest-grossing release. It is also just $32 million away from topping The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1‘s North American total.

After a disappointing opening last week, Jupiter Ascending has, well, begun its descent into anonymity, losing about half of its audience to bring in $9.3 million over the three-day frame. With poor audience reaction and a lot of competition for adults over Valentine’s Day, the pricey sci-fi adventure from Andy and Lana Wachowski has only earned $32.6 million in its first 10 days. Expect a final gross of around $45 million, or about one quarter of Jupiter Ascending‘s production budget.

Here are the numbers for the Top 10 films at the North American box office for the weekend of February 13 through February 15, 2015:

1. Fifty Shades of Grey – $81.7 million (NEW)
2. Kingsman: The Secret Service – $35.6 million (NEW)
3. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water – $30.5 million ($93.7 million total)
4. American Sniper – $16.4 million ($304.1 million total)
5. Jupiter Ascending – $9.4 million ($32.6 million total)
6. Seventh Son – $4.2 million ($13.4 million total)
7. Paddington – $4.1 million ($62.3 million total)
8. The Imitation Game – $3.5 million ($79.7 million total)
9. The Wedding Ringer – $3.4 million ($59.7 million total)
10. Project Almanac – $2.7 million ($19.6 million total)

NOTE: These numbers are weekend estimates based on Friday and Saturday’s estimated takes. Actual numbers for the three-day weekend are reported on Monday afternoon.

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