Women all over the U.S. aren't the only ones pleased with the erotic series "Fifty Shades of Grey."
Bertelsmann reported a huge bump of $201 million (€160 million) in revenue from last year after selling a total of $1.9 billion (€947 million) in the past six months.
Its operating profit was $142 million (€113 million), and the company has Random House's naughty adult thriller in part to thank.
Overall, Bertelsmann reported it's net earnings were up $443 million (€353), an increase of 31 percent.
This shouldn't come as a shock since the series became the fastest-selling paperback of all time back in June beating out the "Harry Potter" series.
To date, the series about a BDSM relationship has sold 40 million books worldwide, with three quarters of those books sold between March and June, according to Bertelsmann.
An ebook of the novel costs $10 while a paperback sells for between $10-$16 on average.
We estimate that "50 Shades of Grey" has grossed about $440 million since it first went on sale. The 30 million books sold in the last quarter have grossed at least $330 million—before costs, expenses and distributions fees—for Bertelsmann. That's more than a third of Random House's sixth-month revenues for the year.
However, all of the green didn't come solely from 50SoG. Random House also had another 152 books on the New York Times best-seller list. Among those is George R.R. Martin's best-selling "Songs of Ice and Fire" series, the inspiration behind HBO's hit "Game of Thrones."
In March, Universal and Focus Features paid $5 million for the rights to turn "Fifty Shades of Grey" into a film, so there's always the opportunity for Bertelsmann to continue it's lucrative run off the series with movie editions of the series down the line.
SEE ALSO: What controversial book knocked Fifty Shades of Grey off Amazon.com's number one spot >
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