Monday Update:

Universal’s romance Fifty Shades Freed wouldn’t “submit” to anyone this weekend, taking first place with $38.5 million. Although that’s the lowest opening of the three Shades films, coming in 17.2 percent behind last year’s Fifty Shades Darker, it was about in line with pre-release expectations.

Sony’s family comedy Peter Rabbit exceeded its pre-release estimates with a $25.0 million opening and second place. Warner Bros.’ action thriller The 15:17 to Paris, directed by Clint Eastwood, started in third with $12.5 million.

Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Fox’s The Greatest Showman both reached an impressive milestone simultaneously, with their eighth weekends in the box office top five. They became the first films to do so since last year’s Beauty and the Beast, which opened in March and notched the feat in May.

The top 10 films this weekend earned $113.8 million total. That’s up 73.2 percent above last weekend (a lower-than-usual frame due to the Super Bowl) but down 33.4 percent from the same weekend last year, when The LEGO Batman Movie led with $53.0 million.

Year to date box office stands at $1.243 billion total, which is 0.4 percent behind last year. This is the first weekend of 2018 at which that figure stands below last year, after the number officially turned negative last Thursday for the first time.

The full table of weekend actuals is at the bottom, after our Sunday update featuring fuller numbers and analysis.

Sunday Update:

As expected, Fifty Shades Freed tied up the top spot at the box office over the pre-Valentine’s Day weekend with $38.8 million, knocking four-time champ Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle off its throne. The debut of the third and final entry in the erotic drama series was off 16% from the opening of last year’s Fifty Shades Darker, which grossed $46.6 million in its first weekend this time last year.

While Freed‘s three-day gross represents the lowest debut of the blockbuster series, this is still a fantastic start for the E.L. James adaptation, which benefitted from a no-holds-barred marketing blitz from Universal. It also has the distinction of being the first real “event”-sized franchise flick of the year. If it performs the way the last two installments did over the coming weeks, it should easily top out north of $100 million domestically when all is said and done.

Second place went to Peter Rabbit, the adaptation of Beatrix Potter’s classic children’s book series that opened to a better-than-expected $25 million. That compares favorably with the $18.9 million opening of the first Paddington movie in 2015 as well as this year’s Paddington 2, which debuted to $11 million back in January.

Unlike the critically-beloved Paddington series, Rabbit‘s Rotten Tomatoes score is a so-so 58%, so it will be interesting to see whether it can demonstrate the kind of solid holds those movies enjoyed during their respective runs. Looking ahead at the release calendar, it’s relatively smooth sailing for the Sony release, though it will have some competition for family audiences next weekend when Aardman Studios’ stop-motion-animated Early Man hits theaters.

In third was the Clint Eastwood terrorism drama The 15:17 to Paris, which grossed $12.6 million on just over 3,000 screens in its opening weekend. It’s an okay debut for the film, albeit far lower than the likes of Eastwood’s similarly-themed American Sniper, which brought in a whopping $89.2 million in its wide opening weekend in 2015. That film of course captured the zeitgeist in a way 15:17 simply didn’t, and its abysmal 20% score on Rotten Tomatoes certainly didn’t help matters.

Perhaps a fairer comparison would be this year’s Afghanistan War drama 12 Strong, which opened to $15.8 million on about the same number of screens in late January. That film, however, fared considerably better with critics, and additionally benefitted from the commercial pull of Avengers co-star Chris Hemsworth in the lead role.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ended its run at the top of the heap this weekend, dropping three spots to No. 4 with another $9.8 million. Still playing on over 3,100 screens after eight weeks in theaters, the Dwayne Johnson blockbuster eased a mere 10%  (keeping in mind that all grosses last weekend were deflated due to the Super Bowl) and now stands at an incredible $365.7 million domestically.

Another ultra-leggy performer, Fox musical The Greatest Showman, posted another minuscule decline, dropping just 17% to $6.4 million and a total of $146.5 million so far. The film is primed to cross the $150 million mark next weekend, a huge feat for a movie that grossed only $8.8 million in its three-day opening back in December. It’s a true word-of-mouth hit of the type we don’t see much of anymore, and another feather in the cap for Hugh Jackman, who retired his role as Wolverine with last year’s Logan.

In its third weekend, Maze Runner: The Death Cure brought in another $6 million after losing nearly 900 screens, giving the YA sequel an okay $49 million so far. For comparison’s sake, that’s a considerable 22% off from The Scorch Trials‘ $63.3 million gross over the same period. Luckily for Fox, Death Cure has already grossed over $150 million overseas, ensuring profitability for the $62 million title.

Supernatural horror film Winchester dropped to seventh with an estimated $5 million in its second weekend, a drop of 46% from its $9.3 million opening. The sharp second-weekend decline (which would have been even greater had it not been competing with the Super Bowl last weekend) is expected for a horror movie, and particularly one that fared so badly with critics. The Lionsgate release currently has an estimated $17.1 million in the bank and will no doubt fade quickly on its way to VOD.

Rounding out the Top 10 this weekend, The Post finished at No. 8 with an estimated $3.5 million after eight weeks ($72.8 million total), Best Picture contender The Shape of Water took in $3 million in ninth ($49.7 million total), and Gerard Butler actioner Den of Thieves grossed $2.8 million in tenth, bringing its lifetime total to $40 million.

Overseas Update:

Fifty Shades Freed brought in a whopping $98.1 million internationally this weekend with a No. 1 debut in 54 markets, giving the film a global haul of $136.9 million thus far and bringing the franchise’s lifetime gross to over $1 billion worldwide (a milestone it passed on Friday). The Fifty Shades series has always been a huge performer overseas, with the last two installments making over two-thirds of their money internationally.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle added another $7.5 million to its coffers internationally, bringing its total to $516.1 million overseas and $881.8 million worldwide. This weekend the film became Sony’s third highest-grossing title of all time globally, surpassing Spectre ($880.7 million) and Spider-Man: Homecoming ($880.4 million).

Weekend Actuals (Domestic)FRI, FEB. 9 – SUN, FEB. 11

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Studio Weekend Estimates (Domestic)

FRI, FEB. 9 – SUN, FEB. 11