Fifty Shades of Grey is the latest cinematographic frenzy and that is obvious by the box office records set by the picture. In the weekend of its release, Fifty Shades was an undebatable lead, being number one position in charts with record sums for the month of February. Weeks after its American release date, the romance hit international box office, its expanding to numerous countries contributing to the achievement of another box office record. According to sources, Fifty Shades of Grey is expected to earn a total of $500 million worldwide by the end of the week.
Fifty Shades of Grey rapidly expanded to 59 territories over the weekend, which totaled its expansion to $338.4 million gross, thus surpassing Ted with $330 million and becoming the highest grossing R-Rated international release of Universal. Among the top worldwide markets which helped at the domination of Fifty Shades of Grey were, according to Proboxoffice, the UK ($46.9M), Germany ($33.7M), France ($24.5M), Brazil ($24.2M) and Italy ($21.2M). South Korea, on the other hand, was not so hot after the Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey bondage romance and left the picture as number 4 in the debut box office. Although a box office leader for three weeks, in South Korea opened only with $1.8 million. This downfall of the picture was the consequence of the fact that the bestseller was not such a hit in South Korea in comparison with countries which welcomed Fifty Shades as box office leader.
Although it became an international box office record breaker, Fifty Shades of Grey left its leading position in the American box office, where the picture was ruled out of the first three positions of the weekend box office. The S&M romance was surpassed by newly released action movie Focus, Kingsman: The Secret Service and even by the animated comedy The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.