Fifty Shades (film series) the second, "Fifty Shades Darker", was released on February 10, 2017. "Fifty Shades Freed", the third film, was released on February 9, 2018. Worldwide, the series has grossed over $1.320 billion, making it the fourth highest-grossing R-rated franchise of all-time. Two years after the trilogy's first novel was released, several distribution companies had bid for the rights of the trilogy. Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount and Universal, as well as Mark Wahlberg's production company, put in bids for the film rights. The winning bid went to Universal Studios and Focus Features, at $5 million. With James gaining control over the process
Fifty Shades (novel series) However, the books have also been largely panned by critics, with the first entry in particular "being ridiculed by virtually every critic who has read it." Since 2015 the series has been expanded with a parallel set of novels "as told by Christian": "" follows the events of "Fifty Shades of Grey" but from the perspective of Christian Grey, while "" (2017) does the same for the plot of "Fifty Shades Darker". Salman Rushdie said about the book: "I've never read anything so badly written that got published. It made "Twilight" look like "War and Peace"." Maureen Dowd described the