Fifty Shades of Grey still holds a career-best record for both of its stars, Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson. The popular film adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same name by E.L. James was initially released in theaters on February 13, 2015 and struck a chord in the cultural zeitgeist, becoming one of the most profitable and talked about movies of that year. The film, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (Back to Black, Hunters), gave an international spotlight to both Fanning and Johnson, who were at the time still rising leads.
Dakota Johnson, daughter of actor Don Johnson (Miami Vice, Django Unchained), first gained prominence from her supporting role as Ameilia Ritter in David Fincher’s The Social Network. Since then, she has also starred in the celebrated 2012 buddy cop comedy 21 Jump Street and Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 psychological horror Suspiria. Dornan skyrocketed to fame with the release of Fifty Shades of Grey, starring alongside Johnson in the two franchise sequels, Fifty Shades Darker (2017) and Fifty Shades Freed (2018).
Surprisingly, Fifty Shades of Grey is still the biggest box office earner for both Johnson and Dornan both domestically and worldwide more than nine years after the film was initially released. Fifty Shades of Grey earned just under $570 million at the worldwide box office, becoming the eleventh highest-grossing movie of 2015, which was topped by Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens’ $2.07 billion box office gross. Jurassic World and Furious 7 finished second and third at the 2015 worldwide box office, respectively.
Outside the Fifty Shades film trilogy, Johnson’s highest-grossing films include The Social Network, which grossed $224 million worldwide against a budget of $40 million, Need For Speed (2014), which grossed roughly $203 million against a $66 million budget, and 21 Jump Street, which pulled in $201.5 million with an estimated budget of $42 million. As for Dornan, his highest-grossing films outside the Fifty Shades film trilogy are Robin Hood (2018), which earned $85 million worldwide, and A Haunting in Venice (2023), which grossed just under $114 million.
