Fifty Shades of Grey looks set to break US box office records already, with early Friday estimates predicting the film to rake in as much as $85 million, according to Variety. The big screen version of the erotic novel opened in cinemas on Friday, just in time for Valentine’s weekend and all those couples looking for a 'romantic' night at the movies. 

Fifty Shades of GreyChristian and Ana in Fifty Shades of Grey

The film is thought to have taken between $26 million-$30 million on Friday alone, with $8.6 million also coming in from Thursday-night grosses, reports Variety, making it Universal’s highest-grossing late night preview ever.

The studio had made a cautious prediction of $50 million for the film’s opening weekend, but those estimates are now far from even the low end figure of $75 million. The film had a somewhat modest $40 million budget, which should already be back in the studio’s bank by now and could even be doubled by Monday.

More: Read our review of Fifty Shades of Grey

Reviews for the film have been somewhat mixed, with some critics panning the dialogue and finding it to be a little less exciting than first promised. Other’s however have praised the scripting as better than the source material and commended director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s efforts.

"Fifty Shades of Grey is not the lame, hot-and-bothered fantasy romance many, including myself, thought it would be. It's got wit and humor and a modest intelligence about human behavior that, say, the Twilight movies never had," wrote Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair.

"The movie Fifty Shades of Grey is considerably better written than the book. It is also sort of classy-looking, in a generic, TV-ad-for-bath-oil way," said Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly.

More: 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Was A Challenge For Dakota Johnson

The film stars Jamie Dornan as reclusive billionaire Christian Grey, who after being interviewed by Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) for her student newspaper, begins to pursue a rather unconventional relationship with the student.

The Fifty Shades of Grey book is the first in a trilogy of novels detailing the couple's relationship, so we can probably expect to see Christian and Ana back on screens in the near future.