Fifty Shades of Grey finally hits theaters this weekend, so Universal will get to see how hot the anticipation is for the adaptation of E.L. James’ erotic novel. The R-rated movie has been in theaters since Thursday night and also gets to take advantage of Presidents Day weekend.
The film has already been an incredible success in foreign markets. According to Variety, the movie made $2.7 million in France in its first day, setting a record for a Universal movie. In Australia, it made $2 million from just 277 locations.
It also scored the biggest Universal opening of all time in Belgium, where it grossed $542,000 in a day. Fifty Shades also opened in the Philippines, where it grossed $340,000. In French-speaking Switzerland, it made $136,000.
In addition to the U.S. launch this weekend, it will also add 29 other international markets.
At home, the movie is likely to get very close to $100 million. As Box Office Mojo points out, it has a chance to set the record for the best Presidents Day weekend, best February debut weekend and best R-rated opening.
The other new film of the weekend is also R-rated, Kingsman: The Secret Service. The action-packed movie is based on a graphic novel and directed by X-Men: First Class’ Matthew Vaughn. Although it stars an unknown - Taron Egerton - Fox has been pushing hard the fact that its supporting cast includes Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson. It’s looking for an opening in the high $30 million range.
Last week’s champion, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water is looking for another impressive weekend, especially since children have Monday off from school. It technically has no new competition, since there’s no new family movie opening this weekend. It could get close to $40 million during the holiday weekend, and has a chance to beat Kingsman.
American Sniper and Jupiter Ascending are expected to round out the Top Five.
image courtesy of Nancy Rivera/ACE/INFphoto.com