Good article on the lack of copycats for what is now a billion dollar franchise. Namely, 50 Shades.

https://www.the-numbers.com/news/228750 ... y-Copycats

On the outside that would seem an anomaly. Here’s insightful analysis on the ‘why’

This series was started from Twilight fan fiction and they've milked it for all its worth. To try and clone a clone with another random BDSM or sex movie would just seem stupid. And if Universal couldn't get the famous people they wanted for this series (I forget who they wanted originally, but at least Johnson and Dornan look like they're going to survive this), they're not going to get anyone famous for another movie at which point the film might as well be made for Cinemax. And Adrian Lyne hasn't made a film in years.

You can only make these "naughty" (films for people who are offended by porn) in a puritanical society every so often. And unless they're made by Adrian Lyne and star the likes of Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Robert Redford and Demi Moore, no one will care. Those films at least appeared to be sophisticated and mature. I haven't seen the "Fifty Shades" series, but I'm guessing they're anything but sophisticated or mature.

Exactly. The first is unbearably childish how after every punchline, Dornan looks at the camera, winks, then soft shoe shuffles his way off screen to the sound of the Looney Tunes theme.

I'm honestly surprised as well. They could make one cheap enough. There are other erotic books that have been pretty big. I thought they were talking about making that Bared To You series into a movie or show.

If the first had made over $200m, I think we would have seen copies. But it only did $160m. Basic Instinct did $240m adjusted, and it just became talked about, and it is a 90s classic. Fifty Shades of Grey is shit. Its mark on the cultural landscape will be nothing. Its leads are empty. They are not stars. They're no Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone. Not to mention that each movie that comes out has made less and less. The first promised erotica and taboo acts ... but it did not live up to it. Nowadays, everyone can see MUCH WORSE within seconds. Quite frankly, it was too tame, and nobody cared, including other studios that saw it for what it was. It is different to view and read. To read 50SoG, your mind makes it as erotic and sick as you want it to be. Seeing it on screen leaves nothing to the imagination, and they didn't put enough on screen to make it water cooler worthy.

I think the problem is no popular actors who are the modern equivalent of Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone would want to touch it. They can't even get any of the major stars to do romcoms anymore let alone an erotica romance that is most likely going to be a garbage film. Actresses like Margot Robbie know it's a better move to build your brand through high quality pictures than to cash out for two years on mainstream films and then disappear.

50 was crap from the beginning but I do think there is a potential for breakout with an erotica that is actually good without any known cast.

Romance is such a woefully under-served genre, it's ridiculous.