Fifty Shades Darker Tracking Well Behind First Film in Box-Office Bow
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http://uproxx.com/movies/fifty-shades-darker-box-office/
JOSH KURPshare
SENIOR POP CULTURE EDITOR
01.31.17
The first movie in your horny aunt’s favorite trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey, earned $85 million at the box office during its opening weekend — that’s more than any film released in February during its first three days ever (the previous record-holder, The Passion of the Christ, made $83.8 million). At the time of the movie’s release, Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst at the audience measurement service Rentrak, told Forbes that between the built-in audience of people who read E.L. James’ books and curiosity-seekers in need of a seductive thrill, Fifty Shades “could be the R-rated equivalent of Twilight.” (And not just because Fifty Shades started as Twilight fan fiction.)
Yeah, about that. Here are the box office numbers for the Twilight movies:
Twilight: $393.6 million
New Moon: $709.7 million
Eclipse: $698.4 million
Breaking Dawn – Part 1: $712.2 million
Breaking Dawn – Part 2: $829.7 million
With the exception of Eclipse, every movie in the series made more than the one before it. That’s par for the course for major film franchises. Meanwhile, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Fifty Shades Darker, the sequel to Fifty Shades of Grey, “will open in the $35 million-$40 million range over the Feb. 10-12 weekend.” That’s barely more than Fifty Shades of Grey made during weekend two. What gives? There are three factors at play here:
1. Fifty Shades of Grey was released the day before Valentine’s Day — Fifty Shades Darker opens on the less romantically-inclined February 10, the same day as John Wick: Chapter 2 and The Lego Batman Movie. Those three films have very different audiences, but parents might choose to see a fun Batman movie with the kids instead of Jamie Dornan’s wooden acting on date night.
2. I saw Fifty Shades of Grey during its opening weekend because I wanted to know what the hoopla was all about. I left the theater disappointed. It wasn’t good enough to be “sexy,” or bad enough to be fun. It was somewhere in the boring middle, which is the worst place a movie with straight-faced dialogue like “I don’t make love. I *beep* hard” can be. Fifty Shades Darker also looks competently dull, despite the elevator sex scene (and Taylor Swift/Zayn duet), and I’m not as interested this time. If there are others like me (even Dakota Johnson is “over it”), that will put a dent in the movie’s box office numbers.
3. Miguel is great, but he’s no Beyoncé.
Maybe she’ll be back for Fifty Shades Freed.
Plus you have to figure that at least half of the estimated gross will come from Isundling and Archer, who will each see the movie over and over in a continuous loop for as long as its in theaters. If it leaves theaters in Houston at some point, Isundling will drive all the way to Nevada if she hears that it's still playing there!
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading!
http://www.agonybooth.com/hit-or-bomb-february-2017-movie-predictions-52039
Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) return in this sequel to Fifty Shades of Grey. Christian entices a cautious Ana to allow him back into her life, only for her to learn that angry and envious women from Christian’s past are out to destroy their relationship.share
Predictions:
Thomas S: I think people went to see the first movie more out of curiosity than anything else. This one is going to BOMB and BOMB hard.
Tyler: I want to say, “Do middle-aged Amway reps still read terrible porn? Then this’ll be a HIT no matter how much it objectively sucks.” My only reservation is that, considering how much money the original made, it’s weird that the budget got halved for the next installment. That’s the opposite of how it’s supposed to work, right? I did some digging on that and found out that not only did the original Fifty Shades have a second-week drop-off even more precipitous than was expected, but it only managed to get a Cinemascore rating of C+, which means the film wasn’t even successful in winning over the fans of the novel who paid to see it onscreen. All in all, it seems the studio doesn’t have a lot of confidence in the franchise’s staying power. It’ll probably still be a HIT, but a much more modest one.
Julie: Though critics will probably hate it just as much as they hated the first one, I think commercially, this second installment of the Ode to BDSM trilogy novel series (which stemmed from, of all things, a then-novice author’s Twilight fanfiction) will be markedly successful. A whole slew of single women without dates for V-day will want to take their girlfriends. And an equally sized slew of not-so-single men will begrudgingly be willing to take their girlfriends/wives while under the belief that it will increase the possibility of their getting lucky afterwards. HIT!
Thomas R: Okay, I’ve never read the books, but all the first film’s sins will be redeemed if Anastasia does indeed get recruited into the sex cult from Eyes Wide Shut and haunted by the spirit of Christian’s vengeful ex, as the trailer seems to imply. In any case, it’s a guaranteed HIT.
Mendo: Once again, I’m reminded more of a perfume ad than a movie trailer. Incidentally, did you know that perfume ads are so weird because David Lynch directed one back in the ’80s?Seriously, look it up. Never saw the first movie on principle, but it was a big hit, so this should at least do as well. HIT.
Joel: This franchise has a lock on Valentine’s Day, even if it totally shouldn’t. HIT.
Rick: Anyone who watches this trash deserves to be whipped and beaten. (So email me if you’re into that.) Seriously, I can’t believe we’re only on the second one of these damn movies. It seems like the whole Fifty Shades craze was a million years ago. This one’ll be lucky to score half the box office of the original, but sadly, that’s still a HIT.
I agree that the curiosity factor was a huge factor in how well the first one did, but disagree this one will bomb exactly.
The thing about this franchise is the films cost very little to make,and the books have enough of a following that ,although they will not be big hits, they will make enough to make a good profit for the studio.
Personally I saw the first out of curiosity,thought it was abysmal,and won't be wasting my money on this POS. The first movie, as far as being erotic goes, was all sizzle and no steak.