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    “Fifty Shades Freed” Tops Weekend Box Office With $38.8 Million

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments3649 Views
    In a Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018 file photo, Jamie Dornan, left, and Dakota Johnson pose during a photocall for the world premiere of 'Fifty Shades Freed - 50 Nuances Plus Claires' at Salle Pleyel in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

    By Lindsey Bahr, Film Writer

    LOS ANGELES (AP) --

    Newcomers like "Fifty Shades Freed," ''Peter Rabbit" and "The 15:17 to Paris" breathed some fresh life into a marketplace that has for weeks been dominated by "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," ''The Greatest Showman" and various Oscar contenders. But it's all just setting the stage for "Black Panther," which opens next week.

    "Fifty Shades Freed" managed to take the top spot on the charts in North American theaters. Universal Pictures estimated Sunday that the final chapter in the Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele saga earned $38.8 million over the weekend — down significantly from the first film's $85.2 million debut and even the sequel's $46.6 million opening, but enough to bump the three-film franchise over $1 billion globally. Women once again made up the vast majority (75 percent) of the opening weekend audience.

    "We are exhilarated with the results," said Jim Orr, Universal's president of domestic distribution. "To have a trilogy engineered primarily for a female audience that we were then able to broaden out into a billion-dollar franchise is just a fantastic result."

    The studio expects a healthy mid-week bump on Valentine's Day and to serve as counter-programming over the holiday weekend against "Black Panther."

    The steamy romance outdid other new competitors like Sony's CG and live-action update of "Peter Rabbit," featuring the voice of James Corden, and Clint Eastwood's "The 15:17 to Paris," starring the real men who thwarted an attack on a Paris-bound train in the summer of 2015.

    "Peter Rabbit," which cost around $50 million to produce, hopped to second place with a solid $25 million and an A- CinemaScore.

    "The 15:17 to Paris" pulled into third place with $12.6 million. Eastwood's dramatic thriller about the true story was not well-received by critics or audiences, who gave the film a poor B- CinemaScore.

    Two films that just won't quit rounded out the top five: "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" fell to fourth place with $9.8 million and "The Greatest Showman" took fifth with $6.4 million.

    Overall the marketplace is still down around 1.8 percent for the year and around 27 percent from the same weekend last year which, comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian notes, saw the launch of "The Lego Batman Movie," ''Fifty Shades Darker" and "John Wick: Chapter 2," all of which opened over $30 million.

    But the box office will pick up next weekend with "Black Panther," which some analysts are pegging for a $150 million start.

    "This is the calm before the Marvel storm," Dergarabedian said. "'Black Panther' is going to supercharge this marketplace when it opens later this week.  I think it's going to break records and spark a huge conversation."

    Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

    1. "Fifty Shades Freed," $38.8 million ($98.1 million international).
    2. "Peter Rabbit," $25 million.
    3. "The 15:17 to Paris," $12.6 million ($5.3 million international).
    4. "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," $9.8 million ($7.5 million international).
    5. "The Greatest Showman," $6.4 million ($8.7 million international).
    6. "Maze Runner: The Death Cure," $6 million ($23.5 million international).
    7. "Winchester," $5.1 million ($860,000 international).
    8. "The Post," $3.5 million ($5.9 million international).
    9. "The Shape of Water," $3 million ($3.1 million international).
    10. "Den of Thieves,"$2.9 million ($4.4 million international).

    Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to comScore:

    1. "Fifty Shades Freed," $98 million.
    2. "Maze Runner: The Death Cure," $23.5 million.
    3. "Pad Man," $8.9 million.
    4. "Secret Superstar," $8.7 million.
    5. "The Greatest Showman," $8.7 million.
    6. "Les Tuche 3 (The Magic Tuche)," $7.9 million.
    7. "Coco," $7.8 million.
    8. "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," $7.5 million.
    9. "Detective K: Secret Of The Living Dead," $6.9 million.
    10. "Till The End Of The World," $6.9 million.

    Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.




    Does “Hundreds of Beavers” Reflect A New Path Forward In Cinema?

    Monday, November 25, 2024

    Hard as it may be to believe, changing the future of cinema was not on Mike Cheslik's mind when he was making "Hundreds of Beavers." Cheslik was in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with a crew of four, sometimes six, standing in snow and making his friend, Ryland Tews, fall down funny.

    "When we were shooting, I kept thinking: It would be so stupid if this got mythologized," says Cheslik.

    And yet, "Hundreds of Beavers" has accrued the stuff of, if not quite myth, then certainly lo-fi legend. Cheslik's film, made for just $150,000 and self-distributed in theaters, has managed to gnaw its way into a movie culture largely dominated by big-budget sequels.

    "Hundreds of Beavers" is a wordless black-and-white bonanza of slapstick antics about a stranded 19th century applejack salesman (Tews) at war with a bevy of beavers, all of whom are played by actors in mascot costumes.

    No one would call "Hundreds of Beavers" expensive looking, but it's far more inventive than much of what Hollywood produces. With some 1,500 effects shots Cheslik slaved over on his home computer, he crafted something like the human version of Donald Duck's snowball fight, and a low-budget heir to the waning tradition of Buster Keaton and "Naked Gun."

    At a time when independent filmmaking is more challenged than ever, "Hundreds of Beavers" has, maybe, suggested a new path forward, albeit a particularly beaver-festooned path.

    After no major distributor stepped forward, the filmmakers opted to launch the movie themselves, beginning with carnivalesque roadshow screenings. Since opening in January, "Hundreds of Beavers" has played in at least one theater every week of the year, though never more than 33 at once. (Blockbusters typically play in around 4,000 locations.)... Read More

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