Will Smith's 'Focus' Dethrones '50 Shades' at the Boxoffice with 19.1 Million Debut Weekend!

"Focus" topped the weekend box office charts with $19.1 million, but the heist film didn’t make off with as much loot as many analysts expected.

The film had been projected to earn between $21 million and $23 million, so cue breathless stories about whether or not Will Smith’s fastball has lost some heat. The debate may be excessive. “Focus” shows the limits of star power generally, not Smith’s particularly.

Focus, released by Warner Bros., cost $50.1 million to produce and debuted in 3,323 locations. It ranks as Smith’s second-weakest debut in ten years, behind “Seven Pounds” and its $14.8 million opening. The picture will need to do well overseas, where Smith remains a big draw, to make money.

Will Smith's and Margot Robbie's comedy crime thriller 'Focus' replaced 50 Shades at the box office to retain the top position. Despite this being Smith’s first leading role in almost 19 months, the movie grossed just $6.5 million on Friday and ended up with $19.1 million for the weekend, Smith’s lowest opening since the drama Seven Pounds in 2008. 

Premium large-format screens accounted for $2.3 million of the “Focus” take, while Imax screens added $2.1 million to its gross. Extreme winter weather in parts of the South and Midwest may be partly to blame for the film missing expectations, Warner Bros. argued.
“It’s all about the snow and the freezing cold,” said Goldstein. “If we had not been beat up by inclement weather, we would have hit $20 million-plus.”

The weekend’s other new release, Relativity’s “The Lazarus Effect,” also fell short of estimates. The micro-budget horror film pulled in $10.6 million from 2,500 theaters, but it had been expected to earn between $12 million and $14 million. The Blumhouse production stars Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde as researchers who figure out a way to bring the dead back to life. That was good enough for a fifth-place finish.

The studio’s financial exposure is minimal, given that it bought the film for $3.3 million, but it still ranks as a disappointment for both Relativity and Blumhouse. Horror films like “The Lazarus Effect” don’t tend to show much endurance at the box office, so future revenues could be hard to come by.

In second place, “Kingsman: The Secret Service” pushed ahead of last weekend’s champ, “Fifty Shades of Grey,” picking up $11.7 million and driving its total to $85.7 million after three weeks. “Fifty Shades” had to settle for a fourth-place finish, dropping 51% from last weekend to earn $10.9 million. The erotic romance has earned $147.8 million domestically.

Third place went to “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water,” which earned $11.2 million, bringing its Stateside haul to $140.3 million.

Many major Oscar winners got a nice bump at the box office after last weekend’s awards ceremony. Newly minted best picture victor “Birdman” nabbed $1.9 million, representing more than a 120% jump over the previous weekend and pushing its domestic box office take to $40.3 million.

Monday, March 02, 2015