Tonight we’ll be recording the new podcast on this weekends new releases. You’ll hear us complain about ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’ in great length. There’s one talking point about it that I would like to expand upon. It’s “R” rating.
When movies are deep into post-production we tend to hear a ton about cuts made to the film to achieve a desired rating. It may seem silly to tweak a film to get that “PG-13” stamp on it but it can mean hundreds of millions of dollars.
Here’s a look at some figures all time
R
Highest Grossing- $370m (Passion of the Christ)
Top 10 are all over 200m
120 films have grossed over $100m
PG-13
Highest Grossing- $760m (Avatar)
Top 10 are all over $375m
Over 200 films have grossed over $100m
PG, G
Highest Grossing- $474m (Phantom Menace)
Top 10 over $310m
Over 180 films have grossed over $100m
Making money with an R is difficult. The number one grossing R rated film of all time is only 19th on the list of all films.
For your film to succeed with an R rating it needs to be something from this list-
Sequel- ‘Matrix Reloaded’ (2nd), ‘Terminator 2’ (10th)
Bro Comedies- ‘Hangover’ (3rd), ‘Wedding Crashers’ (9th)
Genre “Significant”- ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ (5th), ‘Exorcist’ (6th), ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (7th), ‘300’ (8th)
Or Passion of the Christ.
ALVH are none of these things. It’s a joke that hit as a book, where long form jokes can thrive. This doesn’t work for a film. If something looks like a joke in a trailer people won’t go see it. You can’t buy a funny looking movie theater ticket for someone as a joke like you can the book. Adapting this property was a stupid choice.
Also there’s nothing that should make this an R. There is no sex, no language, and little over the top violence. Only thing I can think of is the blood. So guess what? Tone down the blood and make some damn money! Or don’t make the pile of crap.
I’ve just finished rewatching the Alien Quadrilogy and I’ve been thinking about how we really need some R rated movie franchises. We have been coasting on Aliens, Predator, and Terminator properties for too long. The Matrix trilogy and the Resident Evil films are the only more recent properties I can think of, and Matrix is over now. I want some original horror/sci-fi/action film with a decent budget with a hard R-rating that can be turned into a franchise. Is that too much to ask?