Erotic blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey held on to its spot at the top of the box office, despite seeing a massive drop in ticket sales. Receipts of $23.3 million were reported by the L.A. Times, down a whopping 73% from its first weekend.

A decline was of course expected, but the figure is at least 30% less than most projections for its second weekend. When it opened in time for the extended Valentine’s Day and Presidents Day weekend last Friday (February 13th), it took a mammoth $94.4 million.

Fifty Shades of grey
'Fifty Shades of Grey' stars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson

Nevertheless, it’s very far away from counting as a flop. Since it opened, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s adaptation of E.L. James’ novel has taken a worldwide haul of $410.6 million and a domestic total of $130.1 million. Having cost $40 million to shoot and release, it’s made back its production figure and ten times more.

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The R-rated film stars Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey, an S&M-obsessed billionaire who tries to ensnare shy student Anastasia Steele (played by Dakota Johnson) in his kinky games. While it has received some pretty lousy reviews, it doesn’t seem to have harmed its money-spinning potential whatsoever.

Taylor-Johnson, however, was last week reported to be extremely reluctant to helm the sequels, as her relationship with the author James’, given an unusually high degree of involvement with the movie’s production, had turned toxic.

In second and third place at the US box office are Colin Firth’s spy flick Kingsman: The Secret Service and child-friendly SpongeBob SquarePants: Sponge Out of Water respectively. Opening in fourth was Disney’s McFarland, USA with $11.3 million and taking its bow in fifth was teen comedy The Duff ($11 million).

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