SOFT “FOCUS” AT BOX OFFICE

Forecasts that the latest Will Smith rom-com, Focus, would right the actor’s career after 2013’s After Earth flop appeared a bit fuzzy on Sunday after the film failed to fulfill modest box-office predictions. Focus earned an estimated $19.1 million — falling short of the $20-25 million that analysts had anticipated. Nevertheless, it succeeded in knocking Fifty Shades of Grey out of first place, a position it had held for the past three weeks. Indeed, Grey plunged to fourth place with $10.93 million as Kingsman: The Secret Service and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water fought it out for second with Kingsman apparently holding the edge with around $11.75 million to SpongeBob‘s $11.2 million.

The top ten films at the box office over the weekend according to estimates compiled by Rentrak:
1. Focus, $19.1 million; 2. Kingsman: The Secret Service, $11.8 million; 3. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, $11.2 million; 4. Fifty Shades of Grey, $10.9 million; 5. The Lazarus Effect, $10.6 million; 6. McFarland, USA, $7.8 million; 7. American Sniper, $7.7 million; 8. The DUFF, $7.2 million; 9. Still Alice, $2.7 million; 10. Hot Tub Time Machine 2, $2.4 million.