Universal and Focus Features certainly struck a home run when it came to marketing its Fifty Shades of Grey trailer this past week.
First, they had to hope that the material is still hot among readers and that they would still be interested in the film. Then, they had to make sure people cared about the trailer for a movie that won’t be out for another seven months. Obviously, a lot of people still care about E.L. James’ erotic novel and the trailer is breaking records.
Posts of the trailer on YouTube have reached 36.4 million views, according to Zefr data, notes The Hollywood Reporter. Several different sites and divisions of Universal Studios have posted the video since it debuted on The Today Show last week. The most-watched posting of the trailer comes from Universal U.K., which has 16.7 million views alone. That tops the film’s official channel post, which is up to 12.6 million in five days.
As expected, the trailer has earned some backlash from parents groups, who have said that the trailer should not have been shown on Today, even if it was edited. Universal will probably release a red-band trailer closer to the film’s release date to get activists even more riled up.
Fifty Shades stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan as the lovers in an extreme sexual relationship. It opens on Valentine’s Day 2015 and the trailer has been shown before Lucy.
image courtesy of Kristin Callahan/ACE/INFphoto.com