Fifty Shades of Grey

“Fifty Shades of Grey” Advance Tickets Selling Out the South

'Fifty Shades of Grey' still (Express UK)

‘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.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” is Fandango’s Fastest-Selling R-Rated Movie

'Fifty Shades of Grey' still (MTV)

‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ still (MTV)

Those who are planning to see “Fifty Shades of Grey” opening weekend might want to get their tickets like, right now. Five days after tickets went on sale Jan. 11, Fandango reports that it’s the site’s fastest-selling R-rated movie.

According to “The Hollywood Reporter,” the movie has already outsold advance tickets for “Gone Girl,” “Sex and the City 2,” and the second and third installments of “The Hangover.” It also logged the biggest first-week of ticket sales for a non-sequel since the first “Hunger Games” movie in 2012.

Clearly, the ticket sales indicate that there is some curiosity about BDSM amongst those who may lean more vanilla. It also speaks to a safe way to let one’s freak flag fly.

Or it’s a lot of people curious to see if it’s a total trainwreck.

Are Male or Female Submissives More Common?

Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey (EW.com)

Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey (EW.com)

In a recent interview with “Elle UK,” actor Jamie Dornan discussed his role in the upcoming “Fifty Shades of Grey.” He will play businessman Christian Gray, who initiates Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) into his world of pleasure and pain.

Dornan described going to a sex dungeon for research and expressed surprise at how large and widespread the lifestyle is. He then claimed that “more men are submissives than women.”

Is this true?

Dornan was probably speaking from his own anecdotal experience of visiting the dungeon. We don’t know if he visited more than one (and where the dungeon or dungeons were located), and so cannot extrapolate any larger trends from his observation.

But a couple of recent studies illuminate how dominant and submissive roles in BDSM break down along gender lines. Naturally, one of the questions asked was how participants self-identify: as doms, as subs, as women, as men.

In 2013, a Dutch study found 33% of the men surveyed identified as submissive, while 48% identified as dominant. Among women, 76% of respondents identified as submissive, and 8% identified as dominant.

Closer to home, a study from Southern California came out, which examined mental health among BDSM practitioners.

Within the study, 26% self-identified as submissive (with 61% self-identifying as dominant). Amongst women, 69% identified as submissive, and 30% identified as dominant.

This might be a stat where the anecdotal evidence differs from the numerical data. The male respondents might not’ve wanted to self-identify as submissive, and so might’ve skewed the data. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.