In a week that saw just the one major new release… more on that later… Fifty Shades of Grey remains the nation’s #1 movie, bringing in close to $4 million over the past weekend. This is almost double its 2 nearest rivals, the James Bond-esque Kingsman: The Secret Service which brought in a respectable $2.2 million and the much maligned Jupiter Ascending with a $2 million opening week.
Worldwide box office for Fifty Shades has just passed the $410 million mark, absolutely staggering numbers considering its content and rating.
Now, back to Jupiter Ascending. Aussie moviegoers seem to have given the Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum helmed sci-fi fantasy flick the benefit of the doubt, evidenced by its not-too-shabby opening numbers. With a Rotten Tomatoes rating of just 23% (even worse than Fifty Shades which is still sitting at just 25%) I can’t see either of these movies holding out for too much longer in the Top 3.
The remainder of the Top 10 offers little difference to last week, with only The Wedding Ringer disappearing as Jupiter ascends…
| # | Film Title | Distributor | Box Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FIFTY SHADES OF GREY | UNIVERSAL | 3,984,359 |
| 2 | KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE | FOX | 2,201,815 |
| 3 | JUPITER ASCENDING | ROADSHOW | 2,018,462 |
| 4 | AMERICAN SNIPER | ROADSHOW | 926,237 |
| 5 | THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING | UNIVERSAL | 480,154 |
| 6 | PAPER PLANES | ROADSHOW | 344,830 |
| 7 | THE IMITATION GAME | ROADSHOW | 292,279 |
| 8 | WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAY | PARAMOUNT/TRANSMISSION | 286,065 |
| 9 | THE INTERVIEW | SONY PICTURES | 281,310 |
| 10 | SELMA | STUDIOCANAL | 281,296 |
This week sees the release of 3 movies with some serious potential. The first is the critically acclaimed A Most Violent Year starring Oscar nominees Jessica Chastain and David Oyelowo. To be honest, this one will probably draw more critical praise than box office dollars, but you never can tell.
The other newbie is The Second Best Marigold Hotel (read our review here) which, if its predecessor is anything to go by (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel took $3.4 million over its opening weekend back in 2012), will no doubt be in the Top 10 next week, possibly in the #1 spot.
And finally we have Project Almanac, a movie about teens and a time machine. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well. I’m reading very mixed reviews for this, so will sit on the fence on this one. For now.
All figures from The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia and Box Office Mojo.
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