Rated R

“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.