I don’t think there has ever been an upcoming release where I have received so many related material “opportunities” in my Inbox. Publicists are sending “ideas” left and right, movies they believe to be more scandalous than Fifty Shades of Grey, books, articles about related bullshit, a Shades of Romance Conference, a list of favorite “Fifty Shades of Cocktails“, a “Will Valentine’s Day Erotica Become Mainstream Film?” article suggestion, and so on and so on.
Today I also received a note from MovieTickets.com telling me “the number of tickets sold by the company in January 2015 were up 37% over January 2014. The extraordinary first month figures are led by advance ticket sales on American Sniper. Fifty Shades of Grey has also been a very brisk seller, currently trending #1 at MovieTickets.com with 42% of all tickets sold by the company in the last 24 hours being for the film coming to theaters next week.”
Fandango didn’t want to be left out of the mix so they sent along this information:
The top ten states, where Fifty Shades pre-sales are much larger than expected (the film represented nearly 60% of Fandango’s sales on Tuesday), based on a state-by-state analysis of advance sales patterns on Fandango:
- Mississippi: 3.9x
- Arkansas: 2.8x
- West Virginia: 2.7x
- Kentucky: 2.1x
- Alabama: 2.0x
- Louisiana: 2.0x
- North Dakota: 1.9x
- South Carolina: 1.8x
- Iowa: 1.7x
- Tennessee: 1.6x
Add to that an email calling 2002’s Secretary, the film starring James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal, the first Fifty Shades of Grey, another email told me “the newly revamped Fifty Daring Dates app is helping couples spice up their love lives”, and then another told me the Asylum movie Bound starring Charisma Carpenter and Daniel Baldwin and “has been compared to Fifty Shades of Grey in that it addresses the subject of BDSM.” Who the hell made that comparison? And even another, promoting a movie called Old Fashioned, which also opens on February 13, says “Valentine’s weekend at the multiplex will be Grey vs. Clay.” Give me a break.
Now we get a new clip from the movie and the second to premiere on the “Today” show. What is it about that show? Does demo research suggest the Fifty Shades audience watches religiously?
Just how big will Fifty Shades open? I can only imagine how many psychologists are poring over the statistics for this franchise and the rise in romance novel sales, attempting to determine what has come of society where schlocky romance fiction is this popular. Are people becoming less inhibited or are they simply letting their imaginations wander as they spend a little more time in the bathroom?
