Warner Bros. had six R films among its 14 releases (not counting Imax nature films and re-releases) and had a major hit with the R-rated "Magic Mike," which cost just $7 million to make and took in $113 million domestically. The studio's Oscar frontrunner "Argo," which over the weekend topped the $100 million plateau at the box office, is also rated R. That rating won't hurt should the film claim a Best Picture nomination; seven of the last winners at the Academy Awards have been R-rated.
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Obviously, an R-rating offers filmmakers the ability to more accurately portray real-life situations. But that’s not the goal for every filmmaker.
“If Spider-Man were really out there battling crime in the streets of New York City, don’t you think he’d be inclined to drop an F-bomb now and then?” wondered Exhibitor Relations senior analyst Jeff Bock.
He might in the real world, but he won’t be dropping them at the multiplex anytime soon. Nor will Batman or Katniss Everdeen -- at least not if they intend to draw the droves of teenagers that power the grosses of the biggest franchise films.
There was never any doubt that the “Twilight” films – including the nation’s current top film for two weeks running, “Breaking Dawn 2” -- were going to be rated PG-13, according to Fay.
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Author “Stephenie Meyer was very specific with her edict that there would be nothing in there that would put us in the position of getting an ‘R’,” Fay told TheWrap. “She knew the audience that bought the books and had a lot of communication with those folks, and she was very clear on that.”
Both Universal and Warner Bros. have successfully bucked the trend with comedies recently, Warner Bros. with its two “Hangover” films and Universal with this summer’s “Ted.”
“They’ve shown you can get away with an ‘R’ with comedies,” Bock said. “But with an action film, if you want to make $200 million, $250 million at the box office, you’ve got to get the biggest possible audience in there.”
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This year’s top four films -- “The Avengers,” “Dark Knight Rises,” “The Hunger Games” and “The Amazing Spider-Man” -- are all rated PG-13. And of the top 25 film franchises of all time, only one -- “The Matrix” -- carried an “R” rating, so it’s a dollars and cents issue. It’s hard to imagine any project with franchise potential -- and a franchise-sized budget -- could get a studio green light today without assurances that it could play to teenagers.
This summer’s “Prometheus," tied to director Ridley Scott’s earlier “Alien” film, was the rare R-rated project that seemed to have franchise potential.
