Will Smith's ‘Focus' Overtaking ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ at the Box Office, Headed for a $23 Million Opening Weekend
Warner Bros. Pictures Focus , a con man action thriller and romantic comedy film starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie, "is ending the box office dominance of Fifty Shaded of Grey with a moderate opening in the $21 million to $23 million range expected at 3,323 locations this weekend," according to Variety. After two weeks at No. 1, Fifty Shaded of Grey is fading fast and heading for about $10 million this weekend at the U.S. box office.
Produced, written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, Focus has been rated 'R' by the MPAA for language, some sexual content and brief violence. The movie's plot, as the tag lines in the teasers say: "It's about distraction. It's about focus. The brain is slow and it can't multitask. Tap him here, take from there." And, "never drop the con." And, "die with the lie." And finally, "never trust a thief." Focus, according to the studio synopsis, follows the story of Nicky Spurgeon (Will Smith), a seasoned con artist and master of misdirection, and his young grifter apprentice Jess Barrett (Margot Robbie). Along the way, as he's introducing her to finer points of the tricks of his con man trade, she gets too close for comfort. They become romantically involved, which is a liability in their chosen profession. So, they broke off. Three years later, the former apprentice and ex-flame-now herself an accomplished femme fatale of a con artist - shows up in Buenos Aires in the middle of the high stakes race car circuit, as the opposing side of the same scam with a billionaire international race car owner as their common targeted mark. In the midst of Nicky's latest, very dangerous scheme, Jess throws his plans for a loop...and the consummate con man off his game.
The cast of Focus also includes Rodrigo Santoro as Garriga, Gerald McRaney as Owens, BD Wong as Liyuan, Robert Taylor as McEwen, Dominic Fumusa as Jared, Brennan Brown as Horst, Griff Furst as Gareth, Adrian Martinez as Farhad, Candice Michelle Barley as Liyuan's supermodel guest, Joe Chrest as the jeweler, and Don Yesso as the coach.