E.L. James' popular erotic series, "50 Shades of Grey" has taken America by storm.
The sexy "Twilight" fan fiction that follows naive college graduate Anastasia Steele and the handsome, dominant billionaire Christian Grey has transformed the way women are reading porn—the book just became the first to sell more than 1 million copies on the Amazon Kindle.
The novels quickly rose among best-selling lists, copies are flying off shelves faster than book stores can stock them and its popularity has spiked sex toy sales across the nation. And, now, it's being turned into a film.
Just how big has the 50SoG phenomenon become? We've broken down some stats. (Don't worry, we don't have 50.)
16 million: copies of the 50SoG series have been sold so far in the U.S.
The first book in the series, "Fifty Shades of Grey" became the fastest-selling paperback book ever beating out J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series.
$15 million: E.L. James' estimated net worth.
To put this in perspective, as of May 2012, J.K. Rowling, the creator of the "Harry Potter" franchise, has earned $17 million this year. Rowling recently dropped off Forbe's billionaire list this year. In 2011, the author was estimated to be worth $1 billion.
"Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer's net worth is estimated at $125 million.
$5 million: The amount Universal and Focus features paid for film rights.
This is $2 million more than Dan Brown's "DaVinci Code" series sold.
In total, ten studios sparred over getting rights to the film adaptation of 50 Shades including Fox 2000, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and Paramount.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider