Bondage is clearly big business. Despite some unflinching viciousness from the majority of critics, Fifty Shades of Grey destroyed a number of box office records in its opening weekend.
The film was always expected to draw in big crowds. E.L James’ three-part novel sold 100m copies and Odeon sold one ticket of the movie every seven seconds ahead of its release. Yet with its risque subject matter few would have foreseen the biggest opening weekend of all time for both a film defined as romantic drama and film released in February.
Fifty Shades made an incredible $158m worldwide from 58 territories outside the US following its release on Friday, beating openings set by soppy box office smashes such as Titanic, Ghost, Jerry Maguire and The Great Gatsby.