No UAE cinema release for Fifty Shades of Grey after NMC rules it would need 35 minutes of cuts

Dakota Johnson in 50 Shades of Grey. AP Photo/Universal Pictures and Focus Features

The National Media Council ruled that 35 minutes of footage would have to be cut from the film Fifty Shades of Grey – more than a quarter of the 125-minute running time – for it to get a UAE cinema release.

The controversial film, based on the best-selling series of novels by E L James, will not now screened in the country, said NMC Director of Media Content Juma Al Leem, after the regional distributors, Four Star Films in Lebanon, opted not to release.

He said the sexually explicit scenes were up to seven minutes long, and the distributor had decided it would not be fair to audiences or the filmmakers to release such a heavily censored version.

The movie, which had been scheduled for a March 5 release in the UAE, premiered in many countries over the Valentine’s weekend to a decidedly mixed response.

Audiences in the US and Canada flocked to see the film, starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, and it earned US$81.7m (Dh300m) during its opening weekend – a new record for the Presidents Day holiday.

Reviewers have been less than kind, however – the movie has an average rating of only 3.9 out of 10 on IMDB.com, and a dismal 26 per cent on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

Moira Macdonald of The Seattle Times wrote: "Fifty Shades of Grey the movie, for the record, is not quite as bad as Fifty Shades of Grey the book. But that's not saying much," while the UK's The Guardian newspaper described it as "depressingly mainstream" and criticised its "strictly daytime soap" performances.

The UAE is not the only country where audiences won’t get to see the film – it also failed to secure a release in Kenya, Malaysia and Indonesia, while Chinese distributor Universal Pictures has reportedly decided not to submit it.

The US and UK restricted the film to viewers over the age of 18, although France rated it as suitable for anyone over the age of 12.