The romantics, the film aficionados, the ones left holding their girlfriend’s purse outside the ladies’ room. Though they were far outnumbered, they, too, were submissive to the hype. They were the men in Grey.
So what, exactly, attracted them to watch “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the movie based on the erotic novel whose target audience tends to have two X chromosomes?
Obligation, some said. “I didn’t have an option,” said Marcus Jackson, 23, who bought tickets this weekend as a Valentine’s Day gift for his girlfriend. “I figured the best part about it was the wait at the bathroom. No lines.”
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Nelson Mendoza, 31, was disappointed, though, that it was bland compared with the novels. He had persuaded his girlfriend to see the movie on Monday, and afterward he was standing outside the ladies’ restroom, holding her purse and coat.
“The drama was there,” he said, “but they probably didn’t show as much as people would expect.”
A version of this article appears in print on February 17, 2015, on page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Men Seeing ‘Fifty Shades’ Have the Same Reason as Women: Curiosity. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
