Grabbing the middle-American zeitgeist by the throad with a velvet glove, or something, Fifty Shades of Grey set records this holiday weekend, opening to $85 million and adding an additional $9.4 million on Presidents’ Day Monday. So, congratulations to Sam Taylor-Johnson for making a sure thing into a sure thing; now, please go make a movie I want to see.
The counterprogramming choices landed just right, with Kingsman: The Secret Service opening with a four-day haul of $42 million and the SpongeBob Squarepants sequel earning $40 million in its second week of release. American Sniper took fourth place with $16.5 million, breaking the $300 million mark on Sunday, while Jupiter Ascending wheezed into fifth with just $9.2 million.
Will the tanking of the Wachowskis’ latest effects fantasy Norbit Eddie Redmayne out of a Best Actor Oscar? Nah, probably not; Bradley Cooper can do that all by his lonesome.
Since I just watched the second season of The Fall this weekend, I noticed that, like Fifty Shades of Grey, a female character says to Jamie Dornan, “Enlighten me,” regarding his character’s darker impulses, in one case “grey” (with a shade of abusive rather than safe kink) impulses, in the other, pitch black. Not sure if there’s anything to Jamie Dornan being the current spokesman for dark impulses, but I’d like to see him do a light and fluffy comedy next.* Guy needs a break.
*Unintentional comedy of the Fifty Shades script doesn’t count.