Fifty Shades of Grey Explodes the Box Office

Universal Pictures will certainly be pleased with this news – FIFTY SHADES OF GREY made $248.7m (£161.6m) at the worldwide box office at the weekend – the highest global debut of 2015 so far and the 21st biggest opening of all time.

Let’s be honest here, are we really that surprised?! Many tickets were sold before the film even hit the cinemas, people were queuing around the block waiting to collect their tickets and it has been one of the most talked about, highly anticipated films since it was revealed that E.L James‘ bestselling knee-trembler was to be adapted for the big screen.

Sam Taylor-Johnson’s adaptation also took the biggest-ever US debut for the President’s Day long weekend, with $90.7m and it’s not done too badly in the UK and Ireland either, earning $21.5m – the highest for a film with an 18 certificate. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY also achieved similar feats in almost every corner of the world, including Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Philippines and New Zealand.

Back in 2009, the film which broke the cinema’s tills was AVATAR which recorded $241.6m in total, however Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, the stars of the erotic thriller, saw their film record a $248.7m global take.

In recent years, only big-budget fantasy movies such as THE AVENGERS ($392.5m), IRON MAN 3 ($372.5m), THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART ONE ($273.9m), X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST ($262.9m), TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION ($302.1m) and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES ($248.9m) have performed better.

 So we think it is safe to say that the sequels will most likely be given the green light now after drawing in such eager crowds. Will this genre now inspire other film studios to release other erotic films in hope of attracting the same kind of attention? That remains to be seen… 

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY is out in cinemas now (obviously!) and you can read our full review of the film here.

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