‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Becomes Fastest Selling R-Rated Film in Fandango History

Fandango began offering advance tickets for Fifty Shades of Grey on Sunday and has now announced the film adaptation of the best-selling erotic novel has become the fastest selling R-rated movie in the history of the ticket-selling company.

The film, which co-stars Jamie Dornan as billionaire Christian Grey, is also reportedly having the biggest first week of ticket sales for any non-sequel film since the first Hunger Games movie in 2012, which still holds that record.

Dornan recently spoke of his preparation for the film, which included researching sex dungeons and bondage. He spoke to Variety about the film’s subject matter and perceived mistreatment of women, saying, “People make such a hoo-hah about the violence against women aspect of it, it’s far more common for men to be the submissive.”

Also co-starring Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele, Fifty Shades has sold more advance tickets in its first week than Sex and the City 2, The Hangover Part II, The Hangover Part III, and Gone Girl, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Anti-porn watchdog group Morality in Media issued a statement this week regarding the R rating given to the film by the MPAA.

The group proposed the film should warn, “We’d like to change the MPAA rating for Fifty Shades of Grey to read: ‘Promotes torture as sexually gratifying, graphic nudity, encourages stalking and abuse of power, promotes female inequality, glamorizes and legitimizes violence against women.’”

The old adage “no publicity is bad publicity” appears to be true. Fifty Shades of Grey will make its debut on Feb. 13 in the United States.