Jamie Dornan (l) and Dakota Johnson Photo: CFP

The Friday debut of erotic romance film Fifty Shades of Grey on Chinese mainland streaming sites such as iqiyi.com and letv.com has been canceled.

The day before the expected debut, letv.com posted an announcement on its official Sina Weibo stating that "due to special reasons," Fifty Shades of Grey would not be shown on the site.

According to the announcement, letv.com will compensate VIP members who purchased memberships on Wednesday and Thursday by extending their memberships for a month. 

The erotic romance film, adapted from British author E.L. James' bestselling novel of the same name, stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan and recounts the story of a sadomasochistic relationship that forms between a college graduate and a young billionaire.  

The film was theatrically released worldwide in mid-February.

Although at the time of this writing the film only has a 4.2/10 rating on film website imdb.com, Fifty Shades of Grey still garnered quite a bit of attention among Chinese movie fans when news that they would be able to use streaming sites to see the racy film in the privacy of their own living rooms was announced online.

However, the film's suspension hasn't come as much of a surprise to Chinese audiences, as discussions about whether the film, which features several scenes of S&M, would be able to pass the country's censors had continued to rage online since the initial announcement that the film would be coming to China first hit the Internet.    

Since last year, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) has been tightening its examination of imported TV dramas and movies on domestic stream websites.

Last April, four US TV series including The Big Bang Theory and The Good Wife were removed from Chinese streaming sites.