Friday box office: ‘Fifty Shades’ bests ‘Kingsman’ for second week

Sitting atop the Friday box office for a second week, as expected, is “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which outperformed three new releases.

The film based on E.L. James’ erotic novel pulled in an estimated $8 million, a significant drop from its debut last week, but it has now grossed over $102 million to date. The movie has also been a hit overseas, pulling in $209 million at the international box office, well over the $40 million Focus Features shelled out to make the movie.

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, the R-rated picture follows kinky billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and his demure love interest Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson). It made headlines last week for its record-setting numbers over the President’s Day weekend despite receiving only a 27% fresh rating from critic site Rotten Tomatoes and a C-plus grade from audience polling firm Cinemascore.

In second place, “Kingsman: The Secret Service” garnered $5.3 million Friday for a to-date total of almost $54.9 million. Based on a comic book, “Kingsman” follows a street kid (Taron Egerton) who is recruited into a secret spy organization by Harry Hart (Colin Firth). Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Caine also star in the film.

Of the three new releases, CBS Films and Lionsgate’s comedy “The Duff” fared the best with an estimated $4.3 million for third place. Based on the novel by Kody Keplinger, the picture follows high schooler Bianca (Mae Whitman) as she makes herself over to no longer be a “designated ugly fat friend.”

Rounding out the top five are “Spongebob SquarePants: Sponge Out of Water” with $4 million and Disney’s new release “McFarland, USA” with $3.6 million.

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