When Universal Pictures announced yesterday that the upcoming film adaptation of the popular E.L. James erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey would come to theaters in 2014, we didn’t give it much mind; after all, Stephen Amell has counted himself out of the lead role and other than him, there wasn’t a reason why comic book fans would be particularly interested in the news.Well, maybe there is. The film–widely expected to be a blockbuster hit–will come to theaters on August 1, 2014, meaning that it will square off against Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy at the box office in their shared opening weekend.sThis seems to be a more and more common thing to do, as franchises have taken over Hollywood and there’s less development time to come up with original concepts. Also, of course, there’s the fact that the mid-budget dramas and comedies that used to provide a low-cost, high-margin product for Hollywood seem to have mostly evaporated, leaving only micro-budget specialty films and massive spectacle-style movies for most of the summer.
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