The first trailer of erotic drama “Fifty Shades of Grey” has become the most viewed trailer of 2014. The debut trailer was also met with vicious attacks and criticism by conservative groups such as Morality in Media.
The erotic tale of billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and his sadomasochistic relationship with college graduate Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) pulled in $93 million -- more than 40 percent of the top dozen movies’ sales -- according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
Add to that earnings of $173 million outside the US, takes its international sales to over a quarter of a billion dollars -- $266 million to be exact.
The movie, which opened last week in Europe before its weekend US debut, scored the record haul despite some decidedly mixed reviews.
"While creatively better endowed than its print counterpart, ‘50 Shades of Grey’ is a less than satisfying experience on the screen,” said the Rotten Tomatoes movie ranking website, which gave it a lackluster 26 percent approval rating.
The kinky movie will premiere on Valentine’s Day 2015, to compete with a Christian production romantic flick, “Old Fashioned,” the Daily Mail website reported. “A former frat boy and a free-spirited woman together attempt the impossible: an ‘old-fashioned’ courtship in contemporary America,” IMDB describes the movie, asserting that it will stand against the sex, bondage, domination and “singular” fetish, as Mr. Grey likes to call it.
