LEGO Batman May Send Fifty Shades Darker Packing at the Box Office

Apparently, batarangs trump whips and handcuffs as box office projections put LEGO Batman at No. 1 against Fifty Shades Darker on opening weekend.

While we’re still a couple weeks away from opening weekend of two highly-anticipated films, the trades are making the call already. Between The LEGO Batman Movie and Fifty Shades Darker, it appears that black and yellow will beat fifty shades of gray at the box office when both films open in February.

According to Deadline, industry projections have Fifty Shades Darker opening at $30-$42 million. Meanwhile, The LEGO Batman Movie will rack up more than $50 million at the box office. Of course, these projections are based on past performances of similar movies and the current trend of moviegoers. These estimates can change or be wrong entirely.

Though, it should be noted that previous entries in each respective franchise earned a lot of money. Fifty Shades of Grey opened in 2015 with “$85.1M over three days and $93M over four.” Then, the movie went on to gross more than $571 million worldwide. On a budget of $40 million, that marks an incredible feat. Further, Fifty Shades Darker managed to steal The Force Awaken‘s crown for most trailer watches in a 24-hour period.

On the other hand, The LEGO Movie opened in 2014 to equally solid earnings at $70 million. After its run, the movie made $469.1 million at the box office. Obviously, that’s only a litte more than $100 million behind Fifty Shades.

But both ad campaigns have been relentless.

The LEGO Batman Movie releases spots every other day, with more recent entries including shorts about family, a holiday card, and a TV spot all about Barb. The “Behind the Bricks” spot also gives Batman the opportunity to explain why he has a movie in the first place as it showcases one of our favorite villains:

Meanwhile, Fifty Shades Darker has a trailer and some Taylor Swift music, so … you can see how this could be competitive.

Fifty Shades Darker and The LEGO Batman Movie open on Feb. 10.

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