Fifty Shades of Grey' Made a Record-Breaking $94 Million This Weekend

published 16 February 2015

Raise your hand if you went out and saw Fifty Shades of Grey this weekend. Everyone? Yeah, us too.Variety reports (opens in new tab) that the movie made a whopping $94.4 million at the domestic box office (and $160 million internationally) since its debut on Thursday night, which is the fourth-biggest R-rated box office opening in history.

It's also great news for director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who is now—maybe—the holder of the highest-grossing opening weekend title for a female director. There's a little bit of debate about this, actually: Lana Wachowski, half of the directing duo behind the Matrix movies, was transitioning from male to female at the time of The Matrix Reloaded release, so some consider the honor to be hers.

Either way, we're hoping this opens the doors to more female directors (opens in new tab) doing more blockbuster movies from here on out. As this weekend's numbers prove, it's a win-win.

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As the editor of Cosmopolitan, Jess oversees the editorial for all of Cosmo's efforts across print, digital, video, and emerging platforms. Previously she served as the digital director of Marie Claire, where she tripled the readership, and she's held print and hybrid posts at Glamour and Teen Vogue. In 2013 she launched an interactive e-commerce platform for a fashion-tech startup, and in a former life she was a ballet dancer and NYU film student. She lives in Manhattan with her scruffy dog George.