Moviegoers show their love for the Greys, Peter.
LOS ANGELES – Newcomers 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 in theaters. The final chapter in the Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele saga earned an estimated $38.8 million over the weekend — down significantly from the first film’s $85.2 million debut and slightly from the sequel’s $46.6 million opening, but enough to bump the three-film franchise to more than $1 billion globally. Women once again made up the vast majority (75%) 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 midweek bump on Valentine’s Day and to serve as counterprogramming next weekend against Black Panther.
The steamy romance outdid other new competitors like the CG/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 2015.
Peter Rabbit hopped to second place with a solid $25 million and an A-minus from audiences on CinemaScore.
The 15:17 to Paris pulled into third with $12.6 million. Eastwood’s dramatic thriller about the true story wasn’t wellreceived by critics or audiences, who gave it a poor B-minus on 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.
The box office is down 27% from the same weekend last year, which saw the launch of The Lego Batman Movie, Fifty Shades Darker and John Wick: Chapter 2, each of which opened with more $30 million.
But things will pick up with Black Panther, which some analysts are pegging for a $150 million start.
“This is the calm before the Marvel storm,” says comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “Black Panther is going to supercharge this marketplace. ... It’s going to break records and spark a huge conversation.”
Final figures are expected Monday.