For a Thursday night opening on 2,830 screens, Comcast Corp.’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Focus Features romance “Fifty Shades of Grey” sold an estimated $8.6 million in tickets. That would be the second-highest total ever for an R-rated movie opening on a Thursday, according to Box Office Mojo.

The unanswered question going into the weekend is whether the film will be a date movie with a seriously strong chance at earning $100 million on its four-day opening weekend or a movie that attracts a primarily female audience and would do well to see half that amount. The number of U.S. screens showing the movie also increases to 3,646 for Friday.

The book on which the film is based has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, putting it in the company of such fictional epics as the Hunger Games and the Harry Potter books.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” will also open in more than 50 other markets this weekend and Box Office Mojo thinks the film could earn $200 million in overseas ticket sales. Not bad for a film with a production budget of $40 million.

Last week’s box-office winner was “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water,” which pulled in $55.4 million for Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB) and its Paramount Studios. SpongeBob is expected to finish second to “Fifty Shades of Grey” this weekend, with a three-day gross of $33 million. The film’s production budget totaled $74 million.

Also opening this weekend is “Kingsman: The Secret Service” from Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (NASDAQ: FOXA). The film’s production budget was $81 million and the first weekend (four days) is expected to gross $32.5 million.

The film expected to be the fourth-highest grossing movie of the weekend is “American Sniper” from the Warner Bros. studio of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX). The Clint Eastwood-directed action picture has grossed more than $365 million worldwide since opening in wide release just four weeks ago. The production budget for the film was $58.8 million.

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