# 50 Shades Projected To Do $90 Mil in Opening Weekend in US, $158 Mil Overseas **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2015, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771 "2015-02-16T00:45:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771/81 "2015-02-28T19:30:31Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > What baffles me is why he’s so determined to believe that the big bad movie reviewers desperately wanted the movie to fail. I believe there is a general bias against women’s films among male film reviewers, and most of them share the American cultural bias against the sexy. That does not mean they WANTED the movie to fail with an active evil will, but that they were DISPOSED to see it fail. > [@](#): > > They’re professionals who get paid to tell people what a movie (or book) is like. They know perfectly well that people have different tastes and that high quality is far from the only valid reason to go see a movie. They don’t \*care \*whether or not people go see it. Why on earth would they? I think pro movie reviewers watch too many movies, often movies they have no interest in seeing. And by “watch” I mean watch with something like their full attention. I would hate having to do that myself, since most films simply are not worth an adult mind’s full attention. Most work best in the background while you are doing something else. It throws off their sense of what’s fun for the average moviegoer who only watches a movie with full attention (at the theater or at home) maybe once a month and makes them unreliable predictors of what’s good. For example, the pro reviewers also gave “Jupiter Ascending” a very low score on the Rotten Tomato meter, and I thought it was a fine little space opera. Not the be-all and end-all, it had its flaws, but it was fun to watch. So … overall, not impressed by professional movie reviewers, nope. I do think Roger Ebert often did a fine job. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771/82 "2015-02-28T19:33:53Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > All of the other movies I named have worse Rotten Tomato scores than _50 Shades of Grey_. Rotten Tomatoes also classes reviews as either “fresh” or “rotten”, so looking at the “Tomatometer” doesn’t reflect mixed reviews very well. However, the average rating for reviews by critics listed by Rotten Tomatoes is 4.2/10. Metacritic lists _50 Shades of Grey_ with a score of 46/100, which again is better than all the other movies I named. On Metacritic 29 of the 46 _50 Shades of Grey_ reviews from the critics are classes as mixed. (I would also characterize all of the reviews of this movie that I’ve read myself as mixed.) The remaining reviews are split almost evenly between positive (9) and negative (8). > > I note that you still haven’t been able to name a single movie critic who you feel was unfair in their review of _50 Shades of Grey_, even though I specifically asked you about this in this very thread two weeks ago. It also remains unclear to me why you believe this movie should have received better reviews than it did when you haven’t even seen it. All right, that’s a convincing summary, reviews from critics were mixed, then. As for your second point, not sufficiently interested in doing the work. I remember getting that impression from reading about Fifty Shades of Grey. Feel free to differ with me if you like. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771/83 "2015-02-28T19:51:46Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > From the view of the publishing world, _Fifty Shades of Gray_ is unique. It’s a six sigma outlier. Harry Potter is the only other phenomenon that equals it, but Harry isn’t as far ahead of other megateen hits as Gray is of other erotic romance. > > My guess is that number two in sales is Sylvia Day, whose Crossfire series has sold, according to Wikipedia, 13 million. That’s a wonderful number. It’s also around 10% of the Gray trilogy. She is also not a name that has moved into the general public’s consciousness. Other names of bestselling erotica include Ava Claire, Jessica Clare, Mandy Baxter, and Emily Minton. They have one other thing in common: none of them has a Wikipedia page. Sure, that’s proof of the indictment that Wiki is biased toward men’s interests, and even E. L. James (Erika Mitchell) has the most minimal page possible, but it’s also proof of a narrow fandom. > > What matters for the movies is that there is no built-in base of screaming fanatical fans for movies adapted from any other author’s books, unlike the YA’s world’s _The Hunger Games_ and \*Twilight \*and _Divergent_. The studios will, of course, now rush to clone Gray. None will make $100 million U.S. gross. I’ll predict some of them may rise to the weekend hit level of a horror film. The top horror film of 2014 was _The Purge: Anarchy_ at $72 million. That had a production budget of $9 million, which is why horror films are ground out weekly. If they can keep erotica down to those budgets using the same type of unknown, inexpensive actors, they will make money as reliable B-movies. Another huge hit? As doubtful in film as it is for publishing. I mostly agree with what you have said, however, I think the erotic fiction market is a lot broader than you think. It just doesn’t have any other authors that have seen mainstream success like James did, but there are a LOT of writers and readers out there having a grand time. Many more now, thanks to Fifty Shades bringing the genre more exposure. I agree, the likely result of the success of Fifty Shades will be a spate of low-budget erotic romances. I’m OK with that because, really, erotic romances don’t need huge budgets to be good … it’s not like most of them require CGI or period costumes and elaborate sets. What they do need is really, really good scripts and directors who can bring said scripts to life. I do not think this will be a commonplace in the genre, but a couple of hits every year will make up for a LOT of low-budget misses. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771/84 "2015-02-28T20:46:41Z")
The film’s box office performance is reminding me a lot of that of the \*Sex and the City \*movie. Huge “surprise” hit among non-standard audiences, followed by a step drop-off - and a sequel that tanked completely, ending the careers of everyone involved. I wouldn’t place any bets on the next \*Grey \*flick. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771/85 "2015-02-28T20:52:14Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I mostly agree with what you have said, however, I think the erotic fiction market is a lot broader than you think. Just to be clear, I think the romantic erotica genre is both broad and deep. The romance genre is over 50% of all genre fiction and erotica as a subgenre has been growing for a decade. It’s bigger and better selling than either science fiction or fantasy and possibly than both combined. That’s true at the same time it’s true that there has been only one huge, breakout author, which has been the only thing Hollywood cared about. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771/86 "2015-02-28T21:24:31Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > As for your second point, not sufficiently interested in doing the work. I remember getting that impression from reading about Fifty Shades of Grey. Feel free to differ with me if you like. So you were interested enough to start a thread about how _50 Shades of Grey_ has been unfairly slammed by “all the pretentious movie reviewers” who wanted it to fail, but you can’t be bothered to name even one critic who gave the movie a negative review. Did you in fact read any reviews of this movie? Because it’s looking more and more to me like this thread is really about you trying to claim some sort of symbolic victory over those you feel have misjudged _you_. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771/87 "2015-02-28T21:37:35Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > So you were interested enough to start a thread about how _50 Shades of Grey_ has been unfairly slammed by “all the pretentious movie reviewers” who wanted it to fail, but you can’t be bothered to name even one critic who gave the movie a negative review. > > Did you in fact read any reviews of this movie? Because it’s looking more and more to me like this thread is really about you trying to claim some sort of symbolic victory over those you feel have misjudged _you_. Yes, I read several, watched more on video. I was just agreeing with you because you are so insistent that the reviews were mixed. Most of what I read made me think they didn’t like the movie and wanted it to tank. I’m not really interested in doing a lot of … well, any … research to discover specific quotes of reviewers who didn’t like the movie, but I tell you what, just AS A FAVOR TO YOU, I will link once again to the[WTF Movie review of 50 Shades](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZfsW6K39FE)where all three guys disliked the film and the single female reviewer liked it. Have at! Also, I am pretty sure that no pro movie reviewer knows that I exist, hence would not have judged me. What a strange conclusion to leap to. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771/88 "2015-03-01T01:33:16Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Yes, I read several, watched more on video. I was just agreeing with you because you are so insistent that the reviews were mixed. That’s a shame. You should be agreeing with me because I cited actual reviews and aggregate scores instead of making unsupported claims like you’ve been doing. > [@](#): > > Most of what I read made me think they didn’t like the movie and wanted it to tank. > > I’m not really interested in doing a lot of … well, any … research to discover specific quotes of reviewers who didn’t like the movie, but I tell you what, just AS A FAVOR TO YOU, I will link once again to the[WTF Movie review of 50 Shades](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZfsW6K39FE)where all three guys disliked the film and the single female reviewer liked it. Have at! It’s not really a favor to _me_ that you should finally attempt to provide some sort of evidence for your own claims. Or did you mean that you would do me a favor by citing another mixed review? I just finished watching the “What the Flick?!” video, and I didn’t notice anyone cackling about how _50 Shades of Grey_ was going to flop. Instead I saw four people having what seemed like a pretty reasonable discussion about its strengths and weaknesses. One of them (Christy Lemire) liked it, two who generally disliked it still had some positive things to say about it (Ben Mankiewicz praised Dakota Johnson at some length, Matt Atchity mentioned a scene he liked and said the soundtrack was good and that fans of the book would probably enjoy the movie), and the one who was most negative in his remarks (Alonso Duralde) seemed like he was mostly bothered by the movie’s negative and overly tame depiction of BDSM. At the end their average rating was a 4.3/10, which is pretty close to the Metacritic score (46/100) and Rotten Tomatoes average critic rating (4.2/10) that I already cited. I haven’t seen the movie myself so I don’t know if it deserves better than that, but neither do you. What I can tell is that the critics seem to be largely in agreement about _50 Shades of Grey_ being a movie that isn’t very good but does have some enjoyable elements, especially Johnson’s performance. The most common criticism I’ve seen, one also discussed in the video you linked to, is that the male lead was badly miscast and that he and Johnson lack chemistry. That doesn’t seem like the sort of complaint critics would make if they were prejudiced against the source material or subject matter. > [@](#): > > Also, I am pretty sure that no pro movie reviewer knows that I exist, hence would not have judged me. What a strange conclusion to leap to. I didn’t say you thought that professional movie reviewers have judged you. I think you’re using film critics as a stand-in for whoever it is you believe has misjudged you. That’s just a guess of course; I have no way of knowing what your real motives are. But I do know that your weird insistence that _50 Shades of Grey_ was unfairly savaged by critics who wanted it to fail isn’t about the merits of the movie itself (you haven’t even seen it) or the critical response it received in reality. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771/89 "2015-03-01T02:56:27Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > The wide success of “50 shades” might have \*\*sparkled \*\*the interest of a number of people I see what you did there? ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771/90 "2015-03-01T03:07:51Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > 50 Shades’ revenues DID drop by 75% between it’s opening weekend and it’s second weekend, as predicted, but you know what? It was still the No. 1 movie at the box office and made $22 million domestically. It’s total gross to date is over $400 million, ten times it’s $40 million budget. A monster hit, in romance terms, despite being enormously unpopular with the critics. It was a Romance film, on Valentine’s day. There is nothing shameful about selling 25% of such a huge day on a normal weekend… ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771/91 "2015-03-01T03:46:42Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > It was a Romance film, on Valentine’s day. There is nothing shameful about selling 25% of such a huge day on a normal weekend… I am not sure what is supposed to be shameful in the first place. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50-shades-projected-to-do-90-mil-in-opening-weekend-in-us-158-mil-overseas/712771.md?page=4)