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
Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian negative and many critics have criticized it for being too similar to "Fifty Shades of Grey". The "Daily Mail's" reviewer commented that "Ms James has simply shadowed the whole plot of Book One, reproducing the clunky polystyrene dialogue word for word, and inserting italicised thoughts by Christian himself." "The Independent" criticized the book and the choice to include Grey's internal monologues, stating that he had a "vacuous mental life" and that "The effect is increasingly comical – Mills & Boon meets "Peep Show" – while the rest of his internal monologue is spent stating the bleeding obvious." "The Telegraph" wrote