Before the movie has even premiered, the two sequels to Fifty Shades of Grey have already been confirmed.
The news came during a premiere of the movie at New York’s Zeigfeld Theatre where the announcement was made to immediate fanfare from the audience, according to MTV News.
The two book sequels to E. L. James's novel, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, were both published in 2012. It wasn't clear until now if the studio planned to adapt the whole trilogy, but they are apparently confident enough in the movie before it even premieres to green light the rest of the series.
It's hard to blame them for that confidence, as Fifty Shades of Grey is already looking to be a huge box office phenomenon. According to The LA Times, screenings are already selling out on Fandango with some theaters adding extra times to accommodate.
Fifty Shades of Grey is based on the 2011 erotica novel by E. L. James about a literature student, Anastasia Steele, who falls for the wealthy and mysterious Christian Grey. The book, which originated from Twilight fan fiction, has sold over 60 million copies worldwide, selling more on Amazon UK than the entire Harry Potter series.
The highly sexual romance movie is made up of 20 minutes of sex scenes, as we previously reported, and is already generating an expected amount of controversy. The Malaysian Film Censorship Board has banned the movie, describing it as more “pornography than a movie.”
The movie is already receiving outcry and boycotts from groups like the National Center on Sexual Exploitation who say the movie glorifies domestic violence, according to Bloomberg.
But clearly Universal isn't too concerned with this and plans to cash in on Fifty Shades for a full trilogy. After all, sometimes there's nothing like some good old fashion controversy to drive people to the theater to see what all the fuss is about.
Fifty Shades of Grey opens in theaters on February 13th.
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