'Fifty Shades of Grey' explodes on Friday, targeting $85 million debut

Audiences are completely under the spell of Fifty Shades of Grey this Valentine’s Day weekend. It was clear that the film would break the Valentine’s Day weekend box office record, but just how high it could go is still a mystery.

At the moment, it looks like the movie could go as high as $85 million thanks to the added benefit of President’s Day on Monday. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, that would easily smash the $63.1 million debut Valentine’s Day had in 2010.

The film has come out of the gate incredibly strong. Variety reports that it already made $8.5 million from Thursday night early showings alone. On Friday, it made an estimated $26 million.

Fifty Shades isn’t completely without competition. Kingsman: The Secret Service also opens this weekend. The R-rated graphic novel adaptation made around $13 million on Friday and is hoping for a $40 million four-day weekend at least.

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, Fifty Shades earned the widest R-rated release in history and is showing at 3,646 locations this weekend. Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan star in the film.

image courtesy of Nancy Rivera/ACE/INFphoto.com

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