LOS ANGELES -- Let the headline puns and innuendoes begin, these three included: Fifty Shades of Grey whipped up $8.6 million in late Thursday showings, a blistering start for a Valentine's Day box office weekend that's sure to dominate the record books.
Early tracking on the erotic love story had it hitting something like $60 million over the long President's Day weekend, but many who like to watch, ahem, the box office, suspected it would come in much higher.
And it will. Its midnight run in more than 2,800 theaters nationwide took the second-highest box office for an R-rated comedy after The Hangover 2 ($10.4 million) -- and will spread wider than that 2011 film ever did, with a very good chance of beating its $85 million opening.
In any case, Fifty Shades of Grey will spank the $63 million President's Day Weekend record, set in 2010 by Valentine's Day.
It should also easily tie down the record for most sexual innuendoes in a weekend's worth of box office stories, both intended and unintended.
How many sex puns did you find in this story? We counted 10, but let us know in the comments if we missed one.
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