Well, that was short-lived.
It seems that moviegoers might already be sick of their infatuation with Fifty Shades of Grey. During the film’s opening weekend (over Valentine’s Day) it brought in a record-breaking $85 million, making it the highest-grossing February debut ever. Based on pure anecdotal evidence, audiences turned out both out of pure curiosity, and because they were actually fans of the book trilogy.
But, it seems that there’s a shelf life to that morbid curiosity, and it’s approximately five days. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this weekend’s ticket sales dropped a whopping 73%. While many flicks with huge opening weekends experience a big of a dropoff in the following weeks, Fifty Shades’ decline is certainly larger than normal.
The paper offered up a few theories for the sharp drop in sales—the Academy Award broadcast on Sunday and the ongoing bad weather on the East Coast—but we’re going to guess it has a little something to do with the very mixed reactions from moviegoers.
