‘Fifty Shades Of Black’ Trailer: Brace Yourself For Marlon Wayans' Inevitable ‘Fifty Shades’ Parody
Based on the box office numbers, just about every grown-up in the world celebrated Valentine’s Day this year by going to seeFifty Shades of Grey. Naturally, Lionsgate quickly moved to lock down Valentine’s Day 2017 and 2018 as well, forFifty Shades DarkerandFifty Shades Freed. But what’s aFifty Shadesfan to do for Valentine’s Day 2016?
Well, there are a couple of options. You could watch Dakota Johnson’s vanilla romcomHow to Be Single, the trailer for whichdebuted yesterday. Or, if you’ve got more, um, unconventional desires, you could check outMarlon Wayans’Fifty Shades of Greyparody,Fifty Shades of Black. Watch the trailer after the jump.
Open Road Films dropped theFifty Shades of Blacktrailer onYouTube.
Fifty Shades of Blackis a Marlon Wayans movie, all right, and at this point most of the moviegoing audience should know what that means. If you go in for his broad sense of humor, this should be right up your alley. If not, you probably already knew you were going to hate this trailer before you even clicked on it. I won’t feign objectivity — I’m in the latter group.
When theFifty Shades of Blacktrailer isn’t copying its inspiration shot-for-shot, it’s mostly going for the laziest gags possible. There’s a reference to that Kim Kardashian “break the internet” shoot, and a nod toMagic Mikethat basically amounts to “fat people, amirite?” The one inspired joke has to do with all those kinky toys in the Red Room of Pain. In this version of the Red Room, all the whips are named after films about slavery.
But look, it’s easy to whine about the dumb jokes in these parodies. It’s harder to come up with a comedy formula that’s this effective in terms of box office. Wayans’A Haunted House 2made nearly $24 million at the box office, or six times its $4 million budget. The firstA Haunted Housedid even better, earning24times its $2.5 million budget. So if you’re hate-watching theFifty Shades of Blacktrailer and moaning stuff like “why, dear God,why?” there’s your answer.
