Fifty Shades of Grey hasn’t even been out a full month yet, and already it has become the most talked about movie we’ve seen in a while. It has caused a number of stirs in the media whether they be due to the chaotic nature of fans, or some unfortunate outcomes in specific cases after seeing the film. But, regardless of any controversy that has spurred in the media, the film continues to have enormous success, and now has broke yet another huge box office record.
According to Deadline, the BDSM-filled romance flick continues its strong streak in international box offices (despite some countries banning it completely) bringing in a total of $338.4M offshore. That number makes Fifty Shades Universal’s highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. And it is only growing. The film has been coming in number one for three weekends straight, and with its combined domestic gross accumulated at about $147.8M, that puts the worldwide total just shy of $500M (with that number easily reached by the end of this week).
This marks a big moment for Universal, whose previous highest-grossing R-rated film was the 2012 Seth MacFarlane comedy, Ted. And no doubt the studio is more than thrilled at the box office numbers coming in, especially since there has been plenty of negative publicity surrounding it. The film has been the center of many protests against domestic violence, has caused outrage at theaters for mistakenly being played in place of children’s films, and most recently has been blamed for the actions of sexual assault case.
But, along with the controversy, the name grows. And whether or not you have a desire to see it, or already have, you definitely know what the film is. By now, even the somewhat previously unknown stars of the film have become household names. Dakota Johnson even hosted SNL last week. For a bit of perspective, J.K. Simmons only first hosted SNL this year as well.
Although the erotic rom-com (I think it’s more of a rom-com than drama but call it what you want) has had huge openings in most countries abroad, breaking records in France, Ireland, Russia and the U.K., there are plenty of countries that want nothing to do with it. As previously mentioned, many countries have downright banned the film from theaters, but in some, it just didn’t bring in the numbers. For instance, Fifty Shades completely bombed in Japan for a number of reasons, the biggest being a R-15 rating which blurred out some of the scenes. If this box office record proves anything, it’s that people REALLY want to see R-rated films. And even if you have no interest in the BDSM-filled flick, this could be the beginning of a whole slew of more successful R-rated films, whatever genre appeals to you.
