--- title: Fifty Shades of Grey at Drive-In Movie Theater Caused a Traffic Jam description: Parents were less than pleased canonical: https://time.com/3712080/fifty-shades-of-grey-drive-in-traffic-jam/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-17T17:59:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:06.592Z og:title: Drive-In Movie Theater Shows 'Fifty Shades of Grey,' Causes Traffic Jam og:description: Parents were less than pleased og:url: https://time.com/3712080/fifty-shades-of-grey-drive-in-traffic-jam/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdce8dde43cd05053/69877f95e20a87a840a85255/screen-shot-2015-02-17-at-11-50-24-am.png?branch=production&width=488&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 488 og:image:height: 275 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2015-02-17 at 11.50.24 AM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Drive-In Movie Theater Shows 'Fifty Shades of Grey,' Causes Traffic Jam twitter:description: Parents were less than pleased twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdce8dde43cd05053/69877f95e20a87a840a85255/screen-shot-2015-02-17-at-11-50-24-am.png?branch=production&width=488&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Drive-In Movie Theater Shows _Fifty Shades of Grey_, Causes Traffic Jam > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: Super Fans React To 50 Shades of Grey Screening [Watch (HLS stream): Super Fans React To 50 Shades of Grey Screening](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QjE5FVDr.m3u8) (1:27)  _Published 2015-02-06. Super fans who attended an early screening of the 50 Shades of Grey movie at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City had a lot to say about the film, which is set to release on February 13th._ by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Feb 17, 2015 5:59 PM UTC  Universal by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Feb 17, 2015 5:59 PM UTC Traffic piled up on Sacramento, Calif.’s Highway 50 this weekend after unsuspecting motorists got an eyeful of _Fifty Shades of Grey,_ which was playing at a nearby drive-in movie theater, [_Good Morning America_](http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/fifty-shades-grey-drive-screening-traffic-jam-29016104)reports. Parents were not pleased that their curious children were treated to some sexy scenes when driving into the theater. “We just drove in and these two- he’s 12 and he’s 10- were very interested watching it coming in,” John Schmidt, who came to the theater with his family to celebrate his son’s 10th birthday, told a local [Fox](http://fox40.com/2015/02/15/fifty-shades-of-grey-played-at-drive-ins-can-be-clearly-seen-from-highway-50/) affiliate. The _Spongebob Movie_ was playing on a different screen. Schmidt continued, “I’d think it’s a safety issue; people trying to sneak a peek as they are going 70 miles-an-hour down the freeway and looking not where they are supposed to be going, but looking at the movie.” Whoops. _Read next:_ [_7 Totally Unexpected ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Products_](http://time.com/3701856/fifty-shades-of-grey-movie-weird-products/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3712080/fifty-shades-of-grey-drive-in-traffic-jam/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3712080/fifty-shades-of-grey-drive-in-traffic-jam/"},"headline":"Drive-In Movie Theater Shows Fifty Shades of Grey, Causes Traffic Jam","datePublished":"2015-02-17T17:59:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:06.592Z","description":"Parents were less than pleased","url":"https://time.com/3712080/fifty-shades-of-grey-drive-in-traffic-jam/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","viral","Bizarre","film"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdce8dde43cd05053/69877f95e20a87a840a85255/screen-shot-2015-02-17-at-11-50-24-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdce8dde43cd05053/69877f95e20a87a840a85255/screen-shot-2015-02-17-at-11-50-24-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2015-02-17 at 11.50.24 AM","caption":"","creditText":"Universal","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3712080/fifty-shades-of-grey-drive-in-traffic-jam/","name":"Drive-In Movie Theater Shows Fifty Shades of Grey, Causes Traffic Jam"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Super Fans React To 50 Shades of Grey Screening","description":"Super fans who attended an early screening of the 50 Shades of Grey movie at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City had a lot to say about the film, which is set to release on February 13th.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QjE5FVDr/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-02-06T21:10:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QjE5FVDr.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3712080/fifty-shades-of-grey-drive-in-traffic-jam/","duration":"PT1M27S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3712080/fifty-shades-of-grey-drive-in-traffic-jam/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```