Odeon is selling one Fifty Shades of Grey ticket every seven seconds – and it’s preparing for a feeding frenzy in the film’s opening weekend
Much-mocked it may be, but it seems cinema audiences are taking the new cringe fest Fifty Shades of Grey movie, which opens this weekend, pretty seriously. So seriously, in fact, cinema chain Odeon is selling one ticket to the movie every seven seconds.
If it keeps selling tickets at this rate, Fifty Shades will beat Skyfall and the second part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to become the most pre-booked film in the company's history.
It's hardly surprising the movie is popular – after all, the three-part novel sold 100 million copies. And the timing of the movie's release, to coincide with Valentine's day (see what they did there?), means retailers are busily preparing for a surge in sales of, er, merchandise…
More on this story: Fifty Shades of Grey – Surge in adventurous shoppers looking for sex toys, lingerie and bondage gear
As well as a love fest, Odeon is also preparing for a feeding frenzy: the cinema chain says it's shipped in 75,000kg of popcorn – that's enough to fill 13 double decker buses – as well as 125,000 litres of ice cream, enough to give everyone in a sold-out Wembley Stadium a scoop.
It's also stored up 450,000 litres of soft drinks, and 29,000 hot dogs, and reckons it will sell its 500,000th cup of coffee during the opening weekend.
With that kind of selling power, who cares if you end up a little cringed out?
To get you in the mood, here's the trailer…