A savvy Valentines day weekend opening has seen Fifty Shades of Grey set box office records on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the US it enjoyed the biggest-ever Presidents Day/Valentine's opening weekend - grossing $81.7m (€72m) - significantly higher than the 2010's Valentine’s Day which made $56.3m (€49m) and previously held the record.
The adaptation of E L James' erotic novel also had the most successful opening night for a 18 cert film in the UK - taking in £4.6m (€6.2m).
Universal reported that audiences in the US were 68 percent female - and the Hollywood Reporter says the 80 percent of the tickets sold on Valentine's Day were bought by couples.
The film is number one in 56 markets - and expected to have made in the region of €140m globally over the weekend.
While sales have been rocketing - the critical reception has been poor - the film has a 1.5 star rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
The New Yorker described it as the "Downton Abbey" of bondage - continuing, it is "designed neither to menace nor to offend but purely to cosset the fatigued imagination. You get dirtier talk in most action movies, and more genitalia in a TED talk on Renaissance sculpture."
New York Times' review was was willing to meet the film halfway:
"Fifty Shades of Grey might not be a good movie - O.K., it's a terrible movie - but it might nonetheless be a movie that feels good to see, whether you squirm or giggle or roll your eyes or just sit still and take your punishment."
