By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | February 12, 2018 |
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | February 12, 2018 |
Sorry, TK, but Fifty Shades Freed was, as expected, a big hit this week. Alas, if only more people listened to us, then they would have been spared the pain. As always, this franchise is review-proof, and despite our best efforts, there are some people who were just dying to see the world’s blandest domestic abuser further trap his victim while Rita Ora watches on. If you’re looking for a glimmer of joy here, take it in the fact that, with a $38.8m opening weekend, it pulled in way less than its predecessor in the same period of time (Fifty Shades Darker grossed $46.6m). Mercifully, the franchise is now over. Well, unless E.L. James convinces them to remake the entire series from Poundshop Edward Cullen’s point-of-view. Someone go save Dakota Johnson while we still can.
Debuting right behind that is Peter Rabbit, which took in $25m. Sony was predicting around $16m for its domestic weekend, so they’ll be delighted with that (and yes, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is still doing well - it’s now passed $365m domestically). Our own Kristy really enjoyed the film, and that seems to confuse and terrify some people.
Clint Eastwood’s latest drama, The 15:17 to Paris, debuted at number 3 with around $12.6m. That’s respectable — and not bad for a film that a surprising number of us didn’t even know was being released until a couple of weeks ago — but critics and audiences don’t seem enamored with the movie itself, declaring it lesser Eastwood. I’m waiting for him to blame liberal media Obama PC culture and that chair for that.
Since debuting on 20th December, Hugh Jackman’s The Greatest Showman has yet to see a weekend drop higher than 19.4%. It’s also yet to drop out of the top 5. Now that’s some staying power. All fear the Showman, for it shall outlive us all.
As is often true with box office reports, the most interesting stuff is happening in the limited releases. Mexican political satire La Boda de Valentina had a million dollar opening weekend from only 331 theatres, and a cinematic release for this year’s Oscar-nominated shorts brought in $651,000. That’s especially heartening given how little-seen those projects tend to be. Even the most ardent awards geeks tend to miss out of them. Sorry.
This week sees the release of an epic adaptation of the Samson story (as imagined by the people who made God’s Not Dead, so you know that’ll be respectful and not smug at all), the latest stop-motion comedy from Aardman, and BLACK PANTHER!
You can check out the rest of the weekend box office here.
What films did you watch this weekend? How hard did you laugh at TK’s review of Fifty Shades Freed? Will you make it rain lettuce like Peter Rabbit? Did you know there was a new Clint Eastwood film out? What notorious historical figure would you like to see Hugh Jackman make a whitewashed ‘love yourself’ toe-tapping musical from? BLACK PANTHER?! Answers in the comments.