Fifty Shades of Grey’s record-setting box office weekend is just the first volley in what promises to be a banner year for female-driven movies.

Dakota Johnson and Eloise Mumford in Fifty Shades of Grey

Chuck Zlotnick / Universal Pictures

Fifty Shades of Grey exploded at the box office this weekend, with a rousing estimated three-day gross of $81.7 million. That amount is more than ample to thrash the previous President's Day/Valentine's Day weekend record, held by 2010's Valentine's Day (with $56.2 million). Fifty Shades' opening weekend also now ranks as the best-ever debut for a contemporary romantic drama, whipping past last year's The Fault in Our Stars (with $48 million). The only other film released in February that has even seen this kind of money is 2004's The Passion of the Christ (with $83.8 million).

In truth, Fifty Shades' climactic box office eruption isn't much of a surprise — the E.L. James book on which it's based is a global phenomenon that famously boasts a readership of some 100 million worldwide. Those are Harry Potter numbers. And indeed, Fifty Shades pulled in an equally eye-popping $158 million overseas, with number one openings in the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

According to data provided by Universal Pictures, the domestic audience for the film was also predictably skewed towards women: 68% female vs. 32% male. But that is not quite as drastic a split as it could have been: When Sex and the City opened in 2008 with $57 million (or $65.9 million in 2015 dollars) — and seemingly introduced to Hollywood the decades-old phenomenon of women going en masse to see a movie together — the audience was reportedly 75% female.

Still, Fifty Shades more than makes good on Sex and the City's promise of blockbuster box office delivered by a studio movie primarily concerned with women — both as characters and as ticket buyers. What is even more remarkable, however, is that this will not be the only time that description could be applied to an anticipated 2015 box office hit.

Over the course of this year, Hollywood's major studios are scheduled to release well over a dozen feature films that star and showcase women — from grand costume fantasies to hard-R comedies, macabre horror films to sweeping sci-fi sagas. Seven studio movies with women as the main characters will open during the summer alone. Just two years ago, only one studio film starring women, The Heat, opened during the summer.

Here is a brief preview of what to expect this year:

Cinderella

Opens: March 13

Lily James (Downton Abbey) steps into the title character's iconic glass slipper as she contends with her wicked stepmother (played by Cate Blanchett), in this live-action adaptation of the classic Disney-fied fairy tale.

Jonathan Olley / Disney

The Divergent Series: Insurgent

Opens: March 20

Life promises to get even more surreally complicated for Tris (Shailene Woodley) in the second installment of this psychologically driven thriller franchise based on the best-selling YA book series.

Andrew Cooper / Lionsgate

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