Fifty Shades Freed Leads the Weekend as the Franchise Reaches the $1 Billion Mark – Weekly Box Office Report

With three wide releases this past weekend, there was finally some changes to the box office report.  However, while new films like Fifty Shades Freed stole the show from a monetary perspective, some films from previous weekends managed to stay in the top five and continue their impressive runs both domestically and internationally.

Here are the weekend estimates:

#5: The Greatest Showman – $6.4 Million

With another successful weekend, The Greatest Showman became Hugh Jackman’s highest grossing domestic film that doesn’t involve the X-Men franchise.  This weekend marked the eighth week that The Greatest Showman was in theaters, and it has never dropped out of the top five of the box office.

As of now, The Greatest Showman has grossed $314 million worldwide and has never dropped more than 19.4% in a week, signalling that moviegoers have gone absolutely nuts over the film.

*To read my full review of The Greatest Showman, please click here.

image via Slash Film

#4: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – $9.83 Million

Similar to The Greatest Showman, Jumanji has yet to fall out of the top five in the United States.  The film only dropped 10.1%, raising its domestic gross to $366 million.  After another great weekend, Sony has greenlit a sequel to the film and is currently working on developing the project in preparation for another Christmas release.

With its impressive worldwide run, Jumanji has jumped up to the fifth highest grossing film of 2017.  Sony has been accused of being over-ambitious in creating franchises and cinematic universes in the past, but this is the one film that actually forces their hand to continue forward.

*To read my full review of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, please click here.

image via Vox

#3: The 15:17 to Paris – $12.6 Million

Clint Eastwood’s films always perform well with older audiences, and that trend continued with The 15:17 to Paris.  Although opening day audiences for the film were practically split 50/50 between males and females, over 86% of that same audience was over the age of 25.

However, his typical audience didn’t necessarily enjoy the film as The 15:17 to Paris scored a “B-” CinemaScore, suggesting that moviegoers were not all that impressed.  Despite earning $17.9 million worldwide in its first weekend in release, expect the movie to drop quickly as word of mouth from viewers is less than ideal.

But, one has to wonder how the film would have performed if Clint Eastwood hired legitimate actors to play the heroes involved in this courageous act.  People were definitely intrigued to see how ordinary people would act in the film, but many moviegoers and critics claimed that the acting was what sunk The 15:17 to Paris. Hollywood has been accused of failing to find new talent in the past, but this might have been a situation where hiring industry regulars was the smart decision for better box office returns.

image via Rolling Stone

#2: Peter Rabbit – $25 Million

The update of Beatrix Potter’s classic story may not have satisfied purists, but it did make a solid amount of money.  Outpacing Sony’s conservative estimates, Peter Rabbit earned an “A-” CinemaScore, meaning that we could see the film perform well in the coming weeks.

While Black Panther releases next weekend, there isn’t much of a market for mainstream animated films for the next few weeks.  Peter Rabbit will also expand out into other territories that should be more than enough to recoup its $50 million budget.

image via NPR

#1: Fifty Shades Freed – $38.81 Million

Fifty Shades Freed showed that there was certainly diminishing returns as it grossed less than both of the previous two Fifty Shades films.  However, Fifty Shades Freed still earned a ton of cash, pushing the franchise as a whole over the $1 billion mark when you combine the gross of each of the three films thus far.

On a $55 million budget, Fifty Shades Freed grossed about $137 million this weekend when you factor in international markets.  When going by the 2.5 muliplier rule, the sex-filled drama is already close to becoming profitable for Universal Studios.

The film’s audience skewed heavily towards women as they made up over 75% of the opening day audience.  We’ll see how Fifty Shades Freed  performs in the coming weeks, but there’s no doubting that it’s already a success, even if the numbers may be a little less than those earned by its predecessors.

*To read my full review of Fifty Shades Freed, please click here.

image via NY Daily News

Notes

-Here’s the rest of this weekend’s top 10:

#6: Maze Runner: The Death Cure – $6 Million

#7: Winchester – $5.05 Million

#8: The Post – $3.5 Million

#9: The Shape of Water – $3 Million

#10: Den of Thieves – $2.87 Million

–Golden Exits earned $12,210 in one theater to become the per-screen average winner of the week.  Fifty Shades Freed finished with the second highest amount with $10,299 per screen.

-Along with Black Panther, look out for Early Man and Samson as they release wide in theaters this coming weekend.

Thanks for reading!  What are your thoughts on Fifty Shades Freed and the rest of the box office report?  Comment down below!

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