Don't call it a comeback...because it isn't one. Will Smith's Focus stole away the #1 spot from Fifty Shades of Grey with a $19.1M opening weekend, which is a pretty good start for a $50M adult-skewing romantic comedy. But it's hardly great, and for all the jokes made about it After Earth still managed to open with $27M. Of course it died after that domestically ($240M worldwide is still good) due to bad reviews, and Focus has received solid enough notices (including from me) that it could stick around awhile. Smith can probably be credited for a bulk of the audience that turned out but don't sleep on The Wolf of Wall Street's Margot Robbie who is slowly building into a bankable star.
2. Kingsman: The Secret Service- $11.7M/$85.6M
3. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water- $11.2M/$140.3M
4. Fifty Shades of Grey- $10.9M/$147.7M
5. The Lazarus Effect- $10.6M
Digging up dirt in fifth place is The Lazarus Effect, a horror movie that might as well be a soft-remake of Flatliners. $10.6M is on the low end compared to most other small-budget horrors, but at a cost of only $3M nobody at Relativity is complaining. Not sure what this does for stars Olivia Wilde and Mark Duplass....probably nothing.
6. McFarland, USA- $7.79M/$21.9M
7. American Sniper- $7.7M/$331.1M
8. The DUFF- $7.1M/$20M
9. Still Alice- $2.6M/$11.9M
Hey, guess what film just got an Oscar bump from Julianne Moore's Best Actress win? The Alzheimer's drama Still Alice expanded to another 550 theaters and jumped 24% for $11.9M over seven weeks.
10. Hot Tub Time Machine 2- $2.4M/$10.2M
