‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ still (Express UK)

Happy Friday! Next week at this time, some of you might be going to see the hotly anticipated “Fifty Shades of Grey” (either willingly or not). Hope you got your tickets early, because it already became the fastest-selling R-rated movie in Fandango’s history.

According to “Deadline Hollywood,” the movie is tracking to open around $60M over four days. Fandango’s data shows that a lot of the advance sales are coming from the South. Says Anthony D’Alessandro:

It’s a remarkable feat for a risque hard-R film in this region, as exhibitors in this area of the country have refused to book NC-17 films.

The top five states for advance sales are all in the South: Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, Kentucky and Alabama. Fandango also crunched the numbers on how much more than expected each state was selling advance tickets. Mississippi led the way at 3.9 times the expected rate, with Arkansas (2.8x) and West Virginia (2.7x) following closely behind. Southern states take up eight of the top 10 states outselling presale estimations.

In terms of Southern cities, Tupelo, MS, Florence, KY and Chattanooga, TN have already sold out.