LOS ANGELES -- The Will Smith romantic caper Focus opened at No. 1, kicking Fifty Shades of Grey out of the top spot over last weekend but still falling short of box office projections.
"Unfortunately, snow just beat us up in a big way, especially in the South," said Jeff Goldstein, executive vice president and general sales manager for Warner Bros. The film made about $19 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters through Sunday.
"Absent that tough weather," Goldstein said, "we would have ended up over $20 million."
The film, which cost about $50 million to make, fared well enough among moviegoers to earn a B-minus grade from audience polling firm CinemaScore. The majority of audiences were female (53 percent) and older than 25 (88 percent). Critics gave the film a 56 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
"Given the midrange budget, the film's result is right on target," Goldstein said.
Focus follows con artist Nicky (Smith), who trains and eventually falls for Jess (Margot Robbie). Three years after they break up, the duo reunite in Buenos Aires, where both have come to con the same billionaire.
It marks Smith's return to the big screen since After Earth flopped in June 2013. The $135 million Columbia sci-fi flick, which co-starred Smith's son Jaden, opened to just $27 million.
Meanwhile over the weekend, Kingsman: The Secret Service and SpongeBob SquarePants: Sponge Out of Water held steady in the top three.
Kingsman, released by 20th Century Fox, added about $12 million, bringing its total domestic haul to about $86 million.
Based on a comic book, the Kingsman film follows a street kid (Taron Egerton) whom Harry Hart (Colin Firth) recruits into a secret spy organization. Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Caine also star.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Sponge Out of Water, which made about $11 million over the weekend, has benefited from being the only major family film in the market. Since opening in February, the film has made about $140 million in the United States and Canada.
Fifty Shades of Grey dropped 51 percent from last week, sending it from first to fourth place. It added $10.5 million to its $147.4 million domestic haul.
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and based on E.L. James' erotic novel, the Universal Pictures film follows kinky billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and his love interest Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson).
The film has maintained its momentum overseas, however, where it's No. 1 for the third weekend in a row, distributor Universal said. Its international cumulative total is $338.4 million, and Universal projects the film will cross the $500 million mark worldwide in the coming week.
The Lazarus Effect premiered with about $10.2 million, good for fifth place. The low-budget horror film was co-produced by Blumhouse, the company behind the Purge franchise, and Mosaic, for just $5 million. Relativity Studios acquired it for $3.3 million.
The film follows a group of researchers led by Frank (Mark Duplass) and fiancee Zoe (Olivia Wilde) who discover how to bring the dead back to life.
About 52 percent of the film's moviegoers were female, and 60 percent were 25 and younger. The film earned a B-minus grade on CinemaScore and 14 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Meanwhile, fresh off Oscars wins, Still Alice and Birdman climbed at the box office.
Sony Picture Classics' Still Alice, for which Julianne Moore took home an Oscar for best actress, was up 24 percent from the weekend before. The film came in ninth at the box office on a weekend gross of about $2.7 million. It has made almost $12 million to date in the United States and Canada.
The film, written and directed by Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer, co-stars Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart. Moore plays Alice, a professor grappling with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Fox Searchlight expanded Birdman into hundreds of additional theaters after the film won four Oscars, including best picture. It came in at No. 12 for the weekend on a gross of nearly $2 million, soaring 125 percent from the previous weekend. The film has made $40.3 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Rentrak:
Focus, Warner Bros., $18,685,137, 3,323 locations, $5,623 average, $18,685,137, 1 week.
Kingsman: The Secret Service, 20th Century Fox, $11,880,077, 3,282 locations, $3,620 average, $85,825,824, 3 weeks.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, Paramount, $10,820,212, 3,467 locations, $3,121 average, $139,942,262, 4 weeks.
Fifty Shades of Grey, Universal, $10,555,195, 3,383 locations, $3,120 average, $147,391,785, 3 weeks.
The Lazarus Effect, Relativity Media, $10,203,437, 2,666 locations, $3,827 average, $10,203,437, 1 week.
McFarland, USA, Disney, $7,835,205, 2,765 locations, $2,834 average, $22,019,186, 2 weeks.
American Sniper, Warner Bros., $7,394,293, 2,914 locations, $2,538 average, $330,802,741, 10 weeks.
The DUFF, Lionsgate, $6,866,102, 2,622 locations, $2,619 average, $19,769,077, 2 weeks.
Still Alice, Sony Pictures Classics, $2,651,793, 1,318 locations, $2,012 average, $11,940,835, 7 weeks.
Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Paramount, $2,443,538, 2,901 locations, $842 average, $10,311,071, 2 weeks.
Jupiter Ascending, Warner Bros., $2,127,082, 1,545 locations, $1,377 average, $43,138,145, 4 weeks.
Birdman, Fox Searchlight, $1,923,460, 1,213 locations, $1,586 average, $40,227,624, 20 weeks.
The Imitation Game, The Weinstein Co., $1,871,815, 1,103 locations, $1,697 average, $86,774,160, 14 weeks.
Paddington, The Weinstein Co., $1,810,591, 1,421 locations, $1,274 average, $70,214,210, 7 weeks.
A La Mala, Lionsgate, $1,402,118, 384 locations, $3,651 average, $1,402,118, 1 week.
Whiplash, Sony Pictures Classics, $664,936, 538 locations, $1,236 average, $12,252,238, 21 weeks.
The Theory of Everything, Focus Features, $634,562, 611 locations, $1,039 average, $35,035,090, 17 weeks.
The Wedding Ringer, Columbia, $579,668, 542 locations, $1,069 average, $62,991,034, 7 weeks.
Big Hero 6, Disney, $520,039, 348 locations, $1,494 average, $220,876,780, 17 weeks.
Black or White, Relativity Media, $501,080, 718 locations, $698 average, $20,602,166, 5 weeks.
MovieStyle on 03/06/2015