The proof is in the pudding, I suppose. Or in the box office from the past six weeks. But when it comes to the battle of the suave over Valentine’s Day…the longterm evidence conclusively says that Christian Grey has NOTHING on “Eggsy” Unwin.
In a stroke of brilliant counter-programming, 20th Century Fox making the decision to move actioner Kingsman:The Secret Service from last October to February 13, where it went head to head against the S&M Romance of Fifty Shades of Grey, has proved to be an astute and prophetic move indeed.
Though the antics of Christian Grey may have taken the lead from the beginning in the overall box office take, the true result is that Kingsman is outlasting Shades by more than 2:1, proving to be a major hit with longevity at the box office, something that even the fans of Shades aren’t really surprised about. Nor did they support it the way the studio thought they would, even though the sequel has already been green-lit.
Don’t get me wrong: Kingsman has fallen off each week, like most films. But it’s box office drop has been about half that of Shades, and the last four weeks, Kingsman‘s weekly earnings have been way ahead of Shades, which this weekend dropped out of the top 10 while Kingsman is still holding at #5. Kingsman is also holding on to a lot more venues – more than double the screens are showing Kingsman now than showing Shades.
When you consider the fan bases – both are based on printed medium, with Shades starting as Twilight fan fiction then graduating to original story, while Kingsman is based on a graphic novel – they are heavily gender split, with Shades predominately female, and Kingsman predominately male. But the truth of the numbers cannot be ignored…and I think the inevitable Kingsman sequel will be far more successful than the next Shades installment.
Also of interest are reviews and word of mouth, and Rotten Tomatoes really shows how it stacks up. Kingsman got a huge 74% Certified Fresh from critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes fan approval rating of a whopping 87%. Shades utterly withers in comparison, getting an ultra low 25% certified Rotten Critics score and a lower than expected 45% fan approval rating.
The full numbers picture from Box Office Mojo doesn’t lie; check them out below (I tried to put them in here, but the blog didn’t like the tables):
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=fiftyshadesofgrey.htm
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=secretservice.htm
So I think it’s time for Christian Grey to move aside and admit that “manners maketh the Man”…and give the full win to “Eggsy” Unwin. At this point, Christian Grey just WISHES he could be like “Eggsy” Unwin…