‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ to top box office for second weekend

Despite an anticipated drop in ticket sales, “Fifty Shades of Grey” is poised to dominate the box office for a second weekend.

The Universal Pictures film is likely to add $30 million this weekend to its robust domestic debut haul thus far of $102.7 million, according to people familiar with prerelease audience surveys. That would represent a decline of about 65% from the movie’s three-day gross last weekend.

That would position it ahead of not only “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” which also opened last weekend, but also newcomers “Hot Tub Time Machine 2,” “McFarland, USA” and “The DUFF.”

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and based on E.L. James’ erotic novel, “Fifty Shades of Grey” follows kinky billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and his demure love interest Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson).

The R-rated film, which cost about $40 million to make, debuted to $94.4 million over the four-day holiday weekend, making headlines for its record-setting numbers and risque storyline.

It has also been a hit overseas, pulling in $209 million at the international box office. The total worldwide haul is now a whopping $311.7 million.

“Kingsman: The Secret Service” and “Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge Out of Water” will fight for the No. 2 spot. “Kingsman,” which caters to an older male audience, and “Spongebob,” which targets families and teens, each could add roughly $20 million to their hauls.

Based on a comic book, “Kingsman” follows a street kid (Taron Egerton) after he is recruited into a secret spy organization by Harry Hart (Colin Firth). Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Caine also star in the film.

“SpongeBob,” from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon, follows the popular underwater characters in live action as they come ashore. Antonio Banderas voices cranky pirate Burger Beard.

Of the three newcomers, “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” will fare the best. The comedy, released by Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, is expected to debut to up to $15 million.

The film, which cost about $14 million to make, reunites Lou (Rob Corddry), Nick (Craig Robinson) and Jacob (Clark Duke) as they fire up the hot tub time machine again but land in the future. Adam Scott joins the cast as Adam Jr.

Meanwhile, “The DUFF” and “Mcfarland, USA” could each debut to between $7 million to $9 million.

CBS Films and Lionsgate’s “The DUFF,” based on the novel by Kody Keplinger, follows high schooler Bianca (Mae Whitman) as she makes herself over to no longer be a “designated ugly fat friend.” The film will primarily draw in teenagers and females.

Disney’s “McFarland, USA,” which cost $25 million to make, is based on the 1987 true story about runners from a town in California’s central valley who trained on a cross-country team under Coach Jim White (Kevin Costner).

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