'Fifty Shades' Is Number 1 At The Box Office, Duh

Dinner and a movie is a very typical Valentine's Day date, and this year, for most people that movie was Fifty Shades of Grey. It doesn't take an industry professional to know that releasing a highly anticipated movie based on a best selling erotic novel on February 13 was an incredibly smart marketing idea, and it definitely paid off. According to Deadline, Fifty Shades took the number one spot at the box office this weekend, raking in $81.67 million as of Sunday, and the film is projected to bring in over $90 million once the President's Day holiday weekend comes to a close. Is this surprising? Absolutely not, but it does set a record for the best President's Day opening weekend of all time.

Another major player this weekend? Kingsman: The Secret Service, Colin Firth's most recent action movie based on the 2012 comic book series of the same name, brought in $35.6 million, while The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water took a solid third place spot bringing in $30.54 million. Obviously, neither of these even come close to the numbers Fifty pulled in, but they were solid players for those who wanted to go to the movies this weekend and weren't in the mood for a little BDSM onscreen.

Seeing these numbers, it's pretty obvious why Universal decided to give Fifty Shades' two sequels the green light last week ahead of the movie's release. Will they live up to the impossibly high box office standard the first film is already setting? We'll have to wait and see!