California Drive-In Catching Heat for Very Visible 'Fifty Shades' Screenings

Fifty Shades of Grey made a whopping, record-setting $94 million over the long weekend, but a few people in California got to see the hit movie for free.

The West Wind Sacramento 6 Drive-In — a six-screen, open-air multiplex in California’s capital city — was one of nearly 3,646 theaters showing Fifty Shades over the weekend. But unlike most viewing locations, the West Wind is not only outdoors, but also nestled right by a major highway. (Highway 50, to be exact.) The convenient location meant that the R-rated film, which has 14 minutes and 17 seconds of sex scenes during its 125-minute runtime — many of them the more exotic S&M variety — was clearly visible to passing drivers and their passengers on one of the drive-in's 5,000 square foot screens.

That includes children, such as the sons of Sacramento resident John Schmidt. He was driving the boys — aged 10 and 12 — to a birthday party when the young’uns got a very special present from Christian Grey.

“We just drove in, and these two … were very interested watching it coming in,” Schmidt complained to Fox 40 News. Another parent complained to the local KCRA 3 News that children could glimpse the film while exiting the local go-cart track. ”I just don’t think it should be on a big-screen TV out in the middle of public to where anybody could turn around and see it,” said one woman who was interviewed.

As of now, the film is still scheduled to run on Tuesday night, but KCRA reports that the theater owners have moved the screen to make it much more difficult to see from the highway. Our advice: Go see the movie in a place where there aren’t nearby car passengers who potentially might be re-enacting some of the film’s steamier scenes in real time.

Even if you do end up seeing Fifty Shades at a normal theater, though, it might be best to avoid confrontation with the large groups of (mostly) female moviegoers who powered the huge box-office debut. In Glasgow, Scotland, one male moviegoer was allegedly attacked by three women after he asked them to stop talking so loudly. Police were eventually called in, arresting the trio of Fifty fanatics.

Several other women were supposedly vomiting in the aisles of the film thanks to the theater’s policy of selling alcohol to patrons. Hopefully they didn’t then visit a hardware store to buy BDSM gear, though one chain in the UK was very prepared for the influx of curious new customers on the hunt for rope and cable ties.

Watch a video with the Fifty Shades cast: