If Christians weren’t already flipping out over Fifty Shades of Grey, this should do it:

Universal is reporting a Friday estimate of $30.2M for Fifty Shades Of Grey, making it the highest February opening day ever, beating Newmarket’s Passion Of The Christ which opened on Ash Wednesday 2004 with $26.6M.
As for the full opening weekend, Passion of the Christ is still atop the list for February… for now. But the gap is narrow and the estimates for Fifty Shades on Sunday could go up by the end of the day when the receipts are all in:

So if your wife, like mine, wants to go see it, there’s your incentive.
(Top image via JStone / Shutterstock.com)