“Fifty Shades Freed” crushed it at the box office with its Thursday night opening, and it makes no sense to me.
The Hollywood Reporter reported the following:
Universal’s Fifty Shades Freed earned a sizzling $5.6 million in Thursday evening previews.
The threequel closes out the female-fueled film franchise based on the BDSM-laced novels by E.L. James. Dakota Johnson once again stars as Anastasia Steele, while Jamie Dornan reprises the role of Christian Grey.
The movie will have no trouble winning the weekend with a debut of $32 million or more.
The fact people keep seeing these movies is mind-boggling to me. Let me say that the sex and nudity don’t bother me in the slightest. I saw the first one, and actually expected it to be much more graphic than it was. That’s not my problem at all.
I’m shocked by how bad the acting and writing is. You can just tell in the trailers that these movies have zero substance. It’s just Dakota Johnson running around looking shocked all the time as her billionaire lover gets her into BDSM. How do you screw that up? They found the worst cast possible. Corpses have more life than these characters.
I might also be a shade biased here because I haven’t exactly had the best of interactions with fans of the highly successful book series. I know plenty of women who have read these books. Most think they’re just sex novels and move on. Those women aren’t the problem. It’s the insane ones who think these books are somehow life manuals.
There was a girl I knew in college who was obsessed with this series, and she was certifiably crazy. That’s the section of the fanbase that has always been concerning to me. These movies make some people detached from reality. It’s sad, but it’s true. The woman from college was mentally on a different planet, and was addicted to these books. It was all she wanted to talk about. Is it pure coincidence? I have no idea, but I know that women who fully embrace these books as reality should be put in asylums.
Again, the sex and nudity are normal by entertainment standards today. The awful acting, poor plot and insane fans make this series unbearable.