R-Rated Comedies Fare Poorly at the Box Office
Filed under: Comedy, Horror, New Releases, Box Office, Distribution, Exhibition

According to a report conducted by Nielsen PreView published today in The Hollywood Reporter, R-rated comedies don't do so hot at the box office. The timing of these findings seems odd, considering that Step Brothers made a solid $30 million last weekend, while analysts are predicting that another summer comedy slapped with the restricted label, Tropic Thunder, will collect at least that much. Right in the middle of those two releases comes Pineapple Express, which, like Step Brothers and Tropic Thunder, has a built-in core audience interested in raunchy masculine humor. The findings of this report suggest that larger audiences don't want to attend R-rated movies, but it's sort of a pointless observation because R-rated comedies are only made for people who want to see them. Everyone else can check out You Don't Mess with the Zohan.
Of course, there is the occasional R-rated comedy with cross-over appeal, such as Knocked Up, but studios are probably hesitant to make many of those when a safely PG-13 Juno will suffice. Anyway, it's usually not difficult for Hollywood movies to trim a few vulgarities or the fleeting shot of exposed skin in order to knock down the rating a notch and maximize turnout. Horror films are a different story: They usually make bank with the R-rating intact.
Speaking to the 18 and over audience here: Do ratings play any role in the movies you choose to see?









Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-30-2008 @ 2:36PM
Jonathan Kuhn said...
Generally I don't care about the rating unless it feels as if it was purely a marketing decision. I refused to see "Die Hard 4" in the theater because of its PG-13 rating.
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7-30-2008 @ 2:41PM
Mike said...
Honestly, I prefer R-rated films, comedies especially. For one thing, you don't have to deal with all of the immature teenagers who can ruin your theater-going experience at a PG-13 movie. But, more importantly, I find R-rated fare more relatable. We don't live in a PG-13 world. Hell, we don't even live in an R-rated world.
Some movies can work with a lesser rating, while others benefit from the risk of alienating younger viewers. Many a good concept has been wasted in an attempt to be accessible to more viewers. It reminds me of the saying "You can't please everyone". When you try to, oftentimes you wind up pleasing nobody. If you concentrate your efforts on one core audience and actually producing a quality product, you won't usually have too much of a problem finding success.
The only reason I believe we are even seeing the influx of R-rated comedies that we are now is because of the success of 40-Year-Old Virgin and Wedding Crashers in 2005. They paved the way for this revival and I, for one, am grateful. Teenagers are not the only demographic to consider. Besides, they enjoy these movies more than the PG-13 ones too. And if they can't catch them in the theater, they will buy the DVD. So rest assured Hollywood, you will still get their money.
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7-30-2008 @ 2:50PM
Steven Keller said...
Ratings don't play a role at all in my decision whether to see a movie or not. The ratings given out by the MPAA just hint at what I can possibly expect to see/hear in the movie. A lot of time movies don't get the ratings they deserve (Once for example). If the movie gets good reviews, then I'll go see it. The ratings, to me at least, have no affect on how good a movie actually is.
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7-30-2008 @ 3:54PM
Kurt said...
I'm basically immune to ratings (although I generally avoid "G" unless it's got PIxar's name attached to it). Every now and then I'll watch a movie that had been toned down to make PG-13 (or even R in some cases) and lament at how much better it could have been it it hadn't censored itself.
And then every now and then I watch something like "Brick", see that it's rated R, and find myself saying "Wait... what?"
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7-30-2008 @ 6:09PM
C.A. said...
I hate the word 'raunchy'. Hate it. That's all.
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7-30-2008 @ 7:48PM
BJM said...
Wedding Crashers? 40 Year Old Virgin?
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7-31-2008 @ 10:42AM
josh said...
A lot of PG-13 comedies are written as R-rated comedies but the studios insist on watering down the comedy to get a "safer" rating. But they do this with dramas as well. While it's true that more teenagers go to movies than adults, the studios make so few movies for adults that the adult audience decreases even more. If studio heads had the balls to make more comedies and dramas for adults, then adults might get back in the habit of going to movies.
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7-31-2008 @ 12:55PM
rudy said...
i usually avoid movies that are pg-13. that signals to me that there are trying to reach a certain demo,meaning water down.
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7-31-2008 @ 2:12PM
james dempster said...
there's really so much to say here because its such a sensitive subject for me but ill say this. pg-13 is just a joke we dont live in a pg-13 world. comedies i dont care because there hasn't been a good comedy in the longest time. If I have to see a trailer for fucking will farill movie im gonna kill him every week he seems to make a new movie and its somehow the same fucking movie as the last one oh im a race car driver haha oh im a basketball player haha im a fucking anchorman someone kill him for what hes done to comedy. but anyway horror is my thing and thats were i get pissed im a child of the 80s and we had all the greats,and all the strong r and nc17 you can want.but now in a world were everyone is emo sensitive and pc life now imitates art with all the sad excuses for horror movies and watered down remakes pg-13 in the horror genre is so pointless and its simple take a kid from dawsons oc laguna buffy or whatever teenybopper abortion is big that week put them in with a little kid who sees ghosts and twitching chinese woman with long black hair and you have a movie that 12 year olds will be afraid of ,not adults not me in a world were you can watch strangers fuck,people get there head sawed of teenagers come home from war in boxes all without leaving your computer chair what's left to be done. dont fucking tell me kids cant see and r rated movie s because your afraid its to graphic thats bullshit its not like there big moneymakers. thats not the issue. big deal the grudge made a lot of money because people were still high on the ring witch was good,the grudge was not the ring didnt need to be gory it was just cool and fresh at least in the states were we steal all the ideas .dont cater to to 12 year olds they dont what a horror film is but they do know horror as everything i fore mentioned the fact that the grudge gets a 3rd movie and I cant see midnight meat train in theater s is just pathetic wile were at it get rid of fcc and mpaa there not neede and long over due for extinction who are they to tell me what is ok and funny and to graphic like they know personally i have friends and family who know me and if they tell me dont see this movie it sucks or its whatever if I want to see it bad enough im there. I have this crazy thing i do called THINKING and I dont make a good american because i like to form my own opinion [rest in peace george carlin] but its true well im bored and tired and theres so much more to say but ill pass for now .....ps to all the haters and naysayers out there who are wondering who wrote this crazy shit Ill tell you this someone who grew up around violence saw violence on tv and movies committed violence done no time if they only knew had no mother grew up in single family home and how did i turn out 2 little girls a great wife nice house and just fucking fine kill george bush fuck the mpaa fuck all the fags not gays there alright yes there s a difference fuck all the niggers of all colors yes theres a difference there to people the word nigger is outdated and outlasted its usefulness if it ever had any and no longer just portains to my black brothers and sisters fuck all the illegals floating in here getting everyone sick in this country i never got sick when i was a kid now everything is contaminated im not talking to the one who live here and took the citizenship test do they even have that anymore seems everyone is talking spanish come on people its not hard you eat rice and beans all day live with 50 cousins in a one room apartment with rats and roaches and you learned how to speak lalsmewmjomojmmqof meda meda meda porkay porkay blaaaablaaa but you cant learn fucking english. please for the love of whatever [there is no god bye the way] speak english so my kids can stop being forced to learn yours this is supposed to america not mexico but please keep sending the woman we dont make em like that over here all the bitches here think there paris hilton and its just sad to see girls buying things they cant afford like stupid grandma blind people glasses, anyway my wife and i had 3 way with this salma hyak
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8-01-2008 @ 12:27AM
Kurt said...
I remember when in the 80s for a comedy to be successful it had to have an R-rating or else adults wouldn't go to it (of course, this was before PG-13 was introduced). It's the only reason that Steve Martin said the f*word so many times when cursing at the car-rental lady in _Planes,Trains, and Automobiles_ - they had to make it R-rated or else wouldn't get an audience.
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8-04-2008 @ 1:37AM
Saavik said...
I seem to have the opposite attitude of most of the people posting above, since I actively avoid most movies that are rated R. In general, that rating does indicate that the movie has something in it that I don't want to see. Now, if it's a movie that I'm really interested in, I'll look more closely into the reason for its rating and sometimes decide to see it anyway either because it's R for cursing, which generally doesn't bother me, or because I find out enough that I can avoid watching the scenes that I don't want to see. So there are a few R-rated movies that I've seen (most of) and enjoyed (Love Actually and Gosford Park are two examples), but, these are few and far between. In general, I find the things that make a movie rated R to be totally unnecessary to the telling of a good story, at least in the kind of movies I enjoy. None of these recent R rated comedies has looked even mildly appealing to me. And in response to those people who point out that it isn't a PG-13 world, I'd say yeah, but most of the reason I go to a movie is to escape from the real world anyway.
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8-08-2008 @ 11:57AM
Pat said...
Maybe this is true, but a good deal of the major comedies of the past couple years - the new Step Brothers and Pineapple Express, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Walk Hard, Superbad, Knocked Up, Borat, 40 Year-Old Virgin - were all rated R. Most of these were $100 million comedies. Sure, PG-13 might do better overall, but DUH. That's true across every genre. You could say the same about action movies or dramas.
(Ok, looking back, Walk Hard wasn't as successful as I thought it was for some reason, but I thought it was surprisingly funny and assumed it did well because it's Apatow & co.)
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