娱乐英语新闻:"Fifty Shades Of Grey" tops North American box office for second time

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Universal's R-rated film "Fifty Shades Of Grey" dropped over 70 percent on ticket sales in North America, but it still got enough to win the box office for the second time on the Oscar weekend.

"Fifty Shades Of Grey" was on track to sell an estimated 23.2 million U.S. dollars in tickets, plummeting 73 percent this weekend and bringing its total to 130.1 million dollars in America and Canada.

Adapted from E.L. James' erotic novel, "Fifty Shades Of Grey" opened on Valentine's Day weekend. Starring Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, it enjoyed a huge hit overseas, pulling in 280.5 million dollars in 58 regions at the international box office. The total worldwide haul is 410.6 million dollars.

"Kingsmen: The Secret Service" was in second place with 17.5 million dollars and 67.1 million dollars gross. It fell 52 percent on ticket sales compared with the opening weekend.

"Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge Out of Water" held on to third place with an estimated 15.5 million dollars this weekend. That movie has soaked up 125.2 million in sales, much of that contributed by family moviegoers.

Two new movies opened in the top five. Disney's "McFarland, USA" debuted with 11.3 million dollars at 2,755 locations in North America, and Lionsgate film "The Duff" opened with 11 million dollars.

With several big openings in the first two months, the overall box office so far in 2015 is up 10 percent from the same period last year.

Rounding out the top 10 movies this weekend, in terms of ticket sales in the United States and Canada, and as reported by the studios and gathered by Rentrak, were "American Sniper" (9.7 million dollars), "Hot Tub Time Machine 2" (5.8 million), "Jupiter Ascending" (3.7 million), "The Imitation Game" (2.6 million) and "Paddington" (2.3 million).