Fifty Shades Darker (film)

On January 28, 2016, Kim Basinger joined the film, to play Elena Lincoln, Grey's business partner and former dominant, while Luke Grimes, Eloise Mumford and Max Martini were set to reprise their characters from the first film.[19] On February 5, Bella Heathcote was cast as Leila, one of Grey's former submissives.[20] In the same month, Eric Johnson was cast to play Jack Hyde.[21][22] On February 18, Robinne Lee and Fay Masterson joined the film's cast.[23] On February 26, Tyler Hoechlin was cast to play Boyce Fox,[24] and on April 7, it was reported that Hugh Dancy had joined to play Dr. John Flynn, Grey's psychiatrist; neither actor appeared in the finished film.[25]

Filming took place in Vancouver, where much of the first film was shot.

Principal photography was initially set to begin in Vancouver in June 2015.[26] However, it was later postponed due to delays in the script.[14] It was later reported that filming would begin in February 2016 in Vancouver, while the studio North Shore Studios was booked for the film.[27][28] In November 2015, Universal Studios announced that the film and Freed would be shot back-to-back, with principal photography scheduled to commence in early 2016.[29] Filming took place in Paris and Vancouver from February 9, 2016 to July 12, 2016, under the working title, "Further Adventures of Max and Banks 2 & 3."[30][31][32] Principal photography concluded on April 11, 2016.[33]

On September 15, 2016, Universal released the film's first official trailer, which amassed an unprecedented 114 million views in its first 24 hours, from various digital platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. It received more than 2.5 million views on the film's official Facebook page. Over 39.4 million views came from North America, while 74.6 million views came from over 32 international markets, including the U.K., Mexico and France. This broke the previous record, held by Star Wars: The Force Awakens, when it received 112 million views in the same amount of time in October 2015.[36] The record was later surpassed by the second trailer for Disney's Beauty and the Beast, with 127.6 million views in November 2016.[37]

On November 10, 2016 the sequel was given an R rating by the MPAA for "strong erotic sexual content, some graphic nudity and language."[38]

In Canada, the film was classified under 18A for its sexual content in all provinces except Quebec.[39][40][41][42][43][44] In Quebec, which has a different rating system, it was classified under 16+ for its "eroticism".[45] In the United Kingdom, the film was given an 18 certificate for "strong sex".[1]

In the Philippines, the film received an R-18 rating from the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), which means that only moviegoers aged 18 years and above can watch the film, due to its strong sexual content.[46][47]

In New Zealand, the film was originally rated R18 along with Fifty Shades of Grey, however in 2019 the film was lowered to R16 for sex scenes, offensive language & nudity.

The film's soundtrack was released in two separate versions; one for the 19 popular artists' songs used in the film, and another separate release for the original score composed for the film by Danny Elfman. Two of Elfman's themes were also included on the popular artists' version of the soundtrack release. The film's theme song, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" by Zayn and Taylor Swift was released on December 9, 2016.[48] The following month, on January 13, 2017, Halsey released the soundtrack's next single, "Not Afraid Anymore".

Fifty Shades Darker grossed $114.5 million in the United States and Canada and $266.5 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $381.1 million, against a production budget of $55 million.[3]

In the United States and Canada, Fifty Shades Darker opened alongside two other sequels, The Lego Batman Movie and John Wick: Chapter 2, and was projected to gross $32–40 million in its opening weekend.[49][50] It earned $5.72 million from Thursday night previews at 3,120 theaters, down from the $8.6 million grossed by its predecessor two years prior, but still the sixth-best Thursday preview gross for an R-rated film. The film made $21.5 million on Friday, down 30% from the first film's $30 million opening day, but topped the box office that day. It went on to debut to $46.6 million, down 45% from the first film's $85.1 million, and finished second at the box office behind The Lego Batman Movie ($53.0 million).[51] The film grossed $11 million on Valentine's Day, marking the second-highest amount for when the holiday fell on a weekday, behind The Vow ($11.6 million in 2012), and bringing its five-day gross to $61.5 million.[52] In its second weekend, the film grossed $20.3 million, again finishing second at the box office behind The Lego Batman Movie. This marked a 56.5% drop from its first weekend gross, and was only $2 million behind the amount the first film grossed in its second weekend ($22.3 million), only that marked a drop of 73.9% from its respective debut.[53] In its third weekend, it grossed $7.7 million, dropping to 5th at the box office.[54]

Outside North America, the film was simultaneously released in 57 countries, and was expected to gross $115–155 million over its first three days.[2] It ended up grossing $97.8 million in its opening weekend, the fourth largest R-rated international opening of all-time. Its top grossing locations included Germany ($11 million), the United Kingdom ($9.7 million), France ($8.7 million), Brazil ($7.5 million), Italy ($6.8 million), and Russia ($6.7 million).[55]

Much like its predecessor, Fifty Shades Darker received negative reviews from critics, who criticized its screenplay, narrative and Dornan's and Johnson's performance.[56] On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 11% based on 206 reviews, with an average rating of 3.23/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Lacking enough chemistry heat or narrative friction to satisfy, the limp Fifty Shades Darker wants to be kinky but only serves as its own form of punishment."[57] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 33 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[58] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, an improvement over the "C+" earned by its predecessor, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 82% overall positive score and a 68% "definite recommend".[51]

Richard Roeper gave the film two out of four stars, saying: "This is one good-looking, occasionally titillating, mostly soapy and dull snooze-fest."[59] Vince Mancini of Uproxx acknowledged the film's flaws, but said watching the film was enjoyable, noting, "Narrative sloppiness aside, as an outsider, sitting through Fifty Shades Darker was a reasonably diverting experience, odd, dumb fun made even more fun by an audience that whooped and shouted at the screen during sex scenes. I didn't really get it, but I enjoyed the feeling of them having fun, though at two hours plus, it's a bit of a slog."[60]

Manohla Dargis writing for The New York Times expressed similar ambiguous opinions regarding the content of the film, stating:

I was still rooting for Ms. Johnson in Fifty Shades Darker, even if it proved tough going. Once again, the story involves the on-and-off, tie-her-up, tie-her-down romance between Anastasia Steele (Ms. Johnson) and her billionaire boyfriend, Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), a guy with sculptured muscles, expensive playthings and dreary issues. Stuff and kink happens: A gun is fired, a would-be rapist is punished and Anastasia is bound hand and foot. Mostly, she advances and retreats (repeat), mewls and moans, and registers surprise each time Christian tries to dominate her outside the bedroom, evincing the kind of stalkerlike behavior that usually leads to restraining orders.[61]

Richard Brody of The New Yorker described the film as inferior to the first, and found fault in the change in directors, stating:

Some of the greatest Hollywood melodramas (such as Douglas Sirk's Magnificent Obsession) featured plotlines of an even more extravagant absurdity than that of Fifty Shades Darker. Their extreme artifice became a framework for extreme ideas and extreme emotions, even in an era of extreme public reticence about what goes on in the bedroom. The freedom of the current age of sexual explicitness invites realms of characterization—and of intimate imagination—that the first film in the Fifty Shades series hints at and the second one utterly ignores. Fifty Shades Darker's indifference to its characters' identities, conflicts, and desires is matched by its indifference to its own cinematic substance. The film's bland impersonality is grotesque; its element of pornography isn't in its depiction of sex but in its depiction of people, of relationships, of situations that, for all their unusualness, bear a strong psychological and societal resonance. There's nothing wrong with Fifty Shades Darker that a good director couldn't fix.[62]