Monday Mixer: 'Fifty Shades' of dominance

Posted Monday, February 16, 2015 at 1:20 PM Central

by John Couture

It's funny. All weekend long, my social media accounts were filled with outrage over Fifty Shades of Grey and its depiction of deviant sexual behavior, rape, abuse, lack of a properly well-rounded color palette.

What they all seemed to forget is that this film was based on an extremely popular book that (no joke) started out as Twilight fan fiction. So, it's not like we weren't already dealing with a subject matter that already had its tongue planted firmly in cheek.

But yet, as Taylor Swift likes to say, "Haters gonna hate, hate, hate." Did I really just quote Taylor Swift? This might be the low point of all of the Monday Mixers and I haven't even gotten to the bad news yet.

You'll probably notice right away that this MM is a bit lacking and I apologize for that, but we had a snow event turn into an ice storm this morning and I'm racing with the clock to get home before conditions deteriorate much more.

It also happens to be the week of our company's sales convention, which means that Tim and I have significant duties at our day job this week. The good news though is that we're going to be meeting with all of the studios and get some sneak peeks at titles coming out later this year.

For instance, we may or may not be getting a cool look at an action sequence involving Ant-Man himself. Stay tuned.

For now though, I'm trying to beat the ice and snow, so please bear with the brevity of this week's MM.

Box Office 411

As we mentioned above Fifty Shades of Grey had quite the impressive weekend, raking in $94.4 million. In fact, we mentioned its connection to Twilight above, but Fifty Shades of Grey actually opened with about $25 million more than its heralded inspiration.

The great unknown about this film though was whether the targeted audience would turn out in public to see the film that many of them read in private. I think that answer has been proven true by a resounding showing at the box office.

In second place, Kingsman: The Secret Service exceeded its own expectations by earning $42 million. Both films are looking to end up over $100 million with Fifty Shades of Grey aiming for $225 million when it's all said and done.

The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water finished in third place and has now earned over $100 million at the box office. As a barometer for just how huge 2015 is going to be, I didn't have Kingsman or Spongebob making over $100 million, so those two surprises will only help 2015 on its way to reaching new box office heights.

Quick Hitters

• So much happened this weekend and I truly wish I could spend time talking about each and every one of the big news items of the last week. I recommend you check out our latest podcast because Tim and I talk about the biggest items of the week in Spider-Man and The Force Awakens.

  I will leave with these clips from last night's hilarious SNL 40th event.

Well, that's it for this week. Remember to Mix Well until we meet again.