Observers say it’s unlikely that “Fifty Shades Darker” will be able to repeat the feat of earning $85 million in North America after just three days of “Fifty Shades of Grey” two years ago.
About two weeks before Fifty Shades Darker officially opened, box office observers were making predictions about the film’s opening performance.
According to The Hollywood Reporter , based on early ticket sales, the film adaptation of the novel of the same name is likely to open with around $35-40 million.
Two years ago, public curiosity helped Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) earn $85 million in just three days. At that time, the first part of the Fifty Shades series benefited from the fact that Valentine’s Day, February 14, fell on a Saturday. This year, Valentine’s Day is on Tuesday, and Fifty Shades Darker has been in theaters since February 10.
After a successful opening, Fifty Shades of Grey eventually brought in $166 million domestically and a total of $571 million worldwide for distributor Universal. It was a resounding success considering the film adaptation cost just $40 million to produce.
However, even if this year’s Fifty Shades Darker grosses $40 million domestically after three days, producers won’t be too worried because the project’s budget is only $55 million.
The success of Fifty Shades of Grey two years ago completely exceeded Universal’s expectations and they don’t expect the sequel to be able to recreate that magic.
Despite its box office success, Fifty Shades of Grey has not been well received by critics, receiving only a 25% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Users on IMDb also gave the film a very low score of 4.1/10.
In early 2016, the film also won four Golden Raspberry Awards, including the Worst Picture award, which it shared with the superhero flop Fantastic Four (2015).
The Fifty Shades of Grey film crew itself had a dispute between the original author EL James and director Sam-Taylor Johnson after the release of the work. As a result, moving to Fifty Shades Darker , Johnson had to give up the director’s chair to James Foley.
In Fifty Shades Darker , the audience will continue to explore the love relationship between the sadistic billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and the young girl Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson). However, an “old lover” of Grey suddenly appears and makes the story more complicated.
