February 22, 2015
The hit film "Fifty Shades of Grey", an adaptation of the best-selling novel about a kinky relationship between a businessman and a college student, raked in another $23.2 million in ticket sales to lead U.S. and Canadian box office charts for a second week.
The film, which stars James Dornan and Dakota Johnson as the libidinous couple, again outpaced the No. 2 release, "Kingsman: The Secret Service", which took in $17.5 million from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates.
Third place on Oscar weekend, when Hollywood is buzzing with anticipation of Sunday's annual Academy Awards ceremony, again went to the family-friendly "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water", based on the popular television show about a talking animated sponge. It sold $15.5 million in tickets.
The three films replicated their standings from a week ago, and also outperformed a trio of new films that opened this week.
"Fifty Shades", a bona-fide box office bonanza, has already racked up $410 million in global sales in less than two weeks.
"Kingsman" is an adaptation of a popular comic series starring Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Firth about a spy agency's training program and a global threat by a tech genius.
Comcast Corp's Universal Pictures released "Fifty Shades of Grey". "Kingsman: The Secret Service" was released by 20th Century Fox, the unit of 21st Century Fox. "The SpongeBob Movie" was distributed by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.
