Focus is the kind of old school “star” vehicle, a romantic caper comedy that still might catch on in spite of its slow start. Bad weather in the Midwest and South certainly didn’t help the box office this weekend, so it is way too early to start piling on Focus, which is not yet another recent example of a star-vehicle flop like Johnny Depp’s Mordecai. The R-rated Focus earned an “OK” “B” CInemaScore from an audience that was 53% female and older (88% over 25). The big test will come next week when Focus will face off against three new adult-skewing films, the R-rated sci-fi Robot saga Chappie, the R-rated comedy Unfinished Business, and the Geritol-flavored Second Exotic Marigold Hotel. Focus cost just $50 million to produce, and with Smith’s overseas popularity it shouldn’t end up losing a lot, even if it doesn’t perform well here in North America—but it would be a blow to Smith’s status as a major box office star, if Focus fails to match After Earth’s $56 million domestic total.
The only other major new release was The Lazarus Effect, a cheap ($3.3 million) horror film that received a pitiful 14% positive rating from the critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The Lazarus Effect earned $10.6 million, which was good enough for fifth place, but it should fade fast since audiences, which were younger (60% under 25) and 52% female, didn’t like the film any better than the critics, giving it a very bad “C-“ CinemaScore.
Kingsman: The Secret Service, which is based on the comic book series written by Mark Millar, continued to show strong “legs,” dropping just 35% as it earned $11.8 million bringing its domestic total to $85.7 million. The $81 million production has now earned at total of $210.3 million worldwide, making a sequel increasingly likely.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water has proven to be even more durable at the box office as it fell just 32% in its fourth weekend as it earned $11.2 million and brought its domestic total to $140.3 million. Overseas earnings of $96.3 million give the SpongeBob Movie a global total of $236.6 million.
After a record-setting debut, 50 Shades of Grey has faded fast here, but it still remains potent overseas where it has amassed $338.4 million, which added to its domestic total ($147.8 million) yields nearly half a billion dollars.
The sports drama McFarland USA (-29.3%), Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper (-23.4%), the teen-skewing comedy The DUFF (-33.9%), and the “Best Actress”-nabbing Still Alice (+24.4%), all did well. American Sniper is now just $5.5 million short of The Hunger Games Mockingjay, Part 1’s 2014-leading domestic total of $336.7 million, and Eastwood’s film could be in the #1 spot by this time next week. Alejandro Iarritu’s Best Picture-winning Birdman gained 800 theaters and earned an additional $2 million, bringing its domestic total to $40.3 million, but since the movie is already out on DVD, its theatrical prospects are very limited.
Be sure to check back here next week when March starts off with a bang thanks to the release of Neill (District 13) Blomkamp’s robot Chappie, the Vince Vaughn comedy Unfinished Business, and seniors-targeting sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel all debut.
