If you thought film would be a dud, chances are you were wrong

Jul 30, 2014 07:25 GMT  ·  By

Last week saw the release of the first official trailer of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the first film based on E.L. James’ adult trilogy of novels that started as “Twilight” fan fiction. In less than a week, that first preview became the most watched film trailer on YouTube in 2014 and set a new record, THR informs.

Figures released by technology firm Zefr put “Fifty Shades of Grey” at 36.4 million views, much higher than the first trailer for “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” the previous record holder, which got 31 million hits.

Third up came “Godzilla” and “Transformers: Age of Extinction” with 26.3 million views in the first week, while “Dumb and Dumber To,” aka “the sequel we never thought was coming,” scored 23.5 million.

If YouTube views are any indication of future box office performance, it’s worthy of note that both “Godzilla” and the latest “Transformers” installment killed all competition and went on to gross many millions, becoming bona fide blockbusters.

That is, if you still had doubts that “Grey” would become a huge hit, kind of like an adult version of “Twilight.”

James’ novels, no matter how popular, have been duly trashed by critics and in the online community because they’re only an attempt at literature, at best. With such low-quality source material, many thought the film would turn out to be just as disastrous, particularly since it stars two relative newcomers, Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, as leads.

Of course, there still are chances that it will be a dud but you can bet that at least half of those people who saw the trailer would also pay good money to see the film, because it is, without a doubt, one of the most anticipated released of 2015. It comes out on February 14, by the way.

Just like it happened with “Twilight,” this is a film that’s not meant to appeal to non-fans. Those who bought James’ books and raved over them (particularly over Mr. Christian Grey) are also the people for whom this film was made. Some non-fans might wander in the theater when it’s playing, but it will be out of curiosity, not anything more.

The way each step of the production made headlines these past few months is also an indicator of its potential box office success, because rarely before have we seen this kind of buzz around the casting announcements, choosing a director, details about the plot, and the rating producers were gunning for.

Which brings us to another important aspect: don’t expect to see a faithful copy of the book on the big screen. Showing most of the scenes detailed by James (love scenes, that is) would have made the film NC-17 and this rating is like a slow death sentence for movies, no matter how anticipated or not.

Instead, producers will go for an R rating and hope fans will not be disappointed. They also plan on giving the whole S&M-heavy story a more “artful” twist, turning it into a genuine love story. You can tell that from the trailer too.

Here it is, add another view to its record.