Universal’s “Fifty Shades Freed” should dominate its North American opening weekend on Feb. 9-11 with about $37 million, early tracking showed Thursday.
Sony’s family comedy “Peter Rabbit” is tracking for a launch that weekend in the $18 million range and Warner Bros.’ Clint Eastwood thriller “15:17 to Paris” should arrive with about $10 million.
The projected “Fifty Shades Freed” launch isn’t as strong as its predecessors “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which opened with $85.2 million in 2015, and “Fifty Shades Darker,” which opened with $46.6 million on the same weekend last year. The two films, co-starring Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele and Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey, have combined to gross $950 million worldwide.
Tracking shows “Fifty Shades Freed” with an impressive 74% total awareness and 26% definite interest. E.L. James’ erotic romance trilogy was a sensation when published in 2011 and 2012. James Foley directed “Fifty Shades Freed” from a script by Niall Leonard, James’ husband.
Reprising their roles from “Fifty Shades Darker” are Marcia Gay Harden, Rita Ora, Luke Grimes, Victor Rasuk, Jennifer Ehle, Eloise Mumford, Max Martini, Callum Keith Rennie, Bruce Altman, and Robinne Lee. Arielle Kebbel and Brant Daugherty have joined the cast, while Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti, and Marcus Viscidi are producing alongside James.
Tracking on “Peter Rabbit,” a live-action/CGI animated film, showed total awareness of 64%. It’s directed by Will Gluck from a screenplay by Gluck and Rob Lieber, based on the Beatrix Potter stories. The voice cast includes James Corden, Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, and Daisy Ridley, with live-action roles played by Domhnall Gleeson, Rose Byrne, and Sam Neill.
“15:17 to Paris” has total awareness of 37% in early tracking. The thriller is based on the book “The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train, and Three American Heroes” by Jeffrey E. Stern, Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos, about the 2015 Thalys train attack. The film will star Stone, Sadler, and Skarlatos as themselves.
