Box Office: 50 Shades of Oscar Green
Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 2:03PM This weeks box office is nearly identical to last week's only less cash to go round. The top three films still reign holding off newcomers and outside the top five people are still checking out the Oscar nominees for some last minute looksies before the big ceremony tonight (yes, we'll be live-blogging). American Sniper is now just $17 million away from becoming 2014's #1 film. But it has started to lose theaters and its per scene average isn't what it used to be. At any rate it's going to be a photofinish with the top three of 2014: Hunger Games 3 & Guardians of the Galaxy 1 are just 3 million apart in grosses and Sniper is approaching them with unblinking dead-eyed determination.
TOP OF THE BOX OFFICE
Click on the highlighted titles for past articles on that film
01 50 SHADES OF GREY $23.2 (cum. $130.1)
02 KINGSMAN $17.5 (cum. $67.1)
03 SPONGEBOB MOVIE $15.5 (cum. $125.1)
04 MCFARLAND USA $11.3 NEW
05 THE DUFF $11 NEW
06 AMERICAN SNIPER $9.6 (cum. $319.6)
07 HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2 $5.8 NEW
08 JUPITER ASCENDING $3.6 (cum. $39.5)
09 IMITATION GAME $2.5 (cum. $83.9)
10 PADDINGTON $2.2 (cum. $67.6)
11 STILL ALICE $2.1 (cum. $7.9)
In happy news for our long awaited Julianne Moore Oscar coronation Still Alice, expanding to just under 800 screens, nearly made the top ten and has already earned a very healthy $8 million for a movie about the cheery topic of alzheimers. Selma will soon cross the $50 million mark. Despite whining in some corners that it underperformed it's actually the 4th most successful Best Picture nominee.
Reader Comments (9)
From the slowdown in The Imitation Game's domestic box office, it's looking less likely that it will cross the $100 million mark, though it's still the second-most-successful film at the domestic box office. Probably the lesser awards buzz than something like The King's Speech hurt it.
I saw Leviathan over the weekend, so I'll have seen two of the Foreign Language Film contenders (the other being Ida) by the time the statuette is handed out.
Sean = i hope you liked both. Very very strong category that. Wild Tales (which also just opened is a blast)
This will end up being my first movie free movie in ages. I had hoped to see Still Alice or the Animated Shorts program, but plans for both fell through, and I haven't had the chance to see anything at home. That seems perverse on Oscar weekend, but there you go!
I'm really sorry that I wasn't able to see Alice before the Oscars. That and Wild are the two movies I most regret missing, though I'll be able to catch up with both of them soon enough :)
Just watched Inherent Vice. I was really hoping to love it despite the general disliking to call it mine!
But no, it was a missfire. Snif.
I saw American Sniper. Definitively not my cup of tea. I'll say no more because I don't want to offend anyone in such a special night.
The only movie I saw this weekend was Elephant Song, the new English-Canadian film with Xavier Dolan making his English movie acting début. He was quite good, as the psychiatric patient who's trying to manipulate a psychiatrist,, but the plot didn't always make sense. It is supposed to be opening in the US sometime, eventually, and if you like Dolan, I'd suggest you see it.
Peggy Sue - I've seen American Sniper and I hated it more than Million Dollar Baby.
The only Clint Eastwood film I have ever really liked was Bridges of Madison County -and that was only because of the magnificent performance from Meryl Streep.
It looks like that the 50 shades thing won't last, thank God.
I wonder if Hollywood will even notice that Still Alice, after a few more weeks with Julianne's win to bolster it, will have outgrossed the alpha-male macho films Whiplash and Foxcatcher. Probably not, but hey, at least it's happening.