Dr. DVD

This weekend American Sniper made tons of money and (I think) the largest opening ever for a rated R movie for a weekend. Next month we have high profile flicks such as The Kingsman, Fifty Shades of Grey, and Will Smith's Focus , all of which will have an R rating. I don't recollect this many studio movies with an R rating coming out so close to each other in a long time. Is it possible studios are getting a bit less gunshy about these now?

CharlieK

The Wedding Ringer is also R-rated, and I think set a record for highest R comedy in January or something.

RichC2

Yes and no. They are starting to realize though that doing an "adult" movie and getting a PG-13 for it isn't boosting box office as much as it used to. To get the 12 - 16 year olds in theaters you now need stars that appeal to them specifically.

Rypro 525

I think Fifty is a Focus Features movie but is being distributed by Univesal due to hype

Brack

The Matrix Reloaded still holds the top spot for an R rated opening weekend, but for a non-franchise film, yes, it's a new record, which makes its opening even more impressive in some respects.

Mondo Kane

I've been wanting R-rated theater to give R-rated (Cable) television some competition, but I've been let down year after year concerning that. Doubtful that it'll ever happen.

davidh777

I thought the R-rated comeback was around the time of Wedding Crashers.

Matthew Chmiel

The biggest R-rating opening is still The Matrix Reloaded with $92M over its three-day weekend (its four-day weekend is actually $135M).

Back to the topic on hand, I second RichC2's answer yes and no. Looking at American Sniper specifically, only six other R-rated films grossed more than $100M that were released in 2014: 22 Jump Street, Gone Girl, Neighbors, Lucy, 300: Rise of an Empire, and The Equalizer. American Sniper will make number seven. Looking back at past R-rated films that grossed more than $100M, there were: 9 in 2013, 8 in 2012, 6 in 2011, 6 in 2010, and 6 in 2009.

I do think American Sniper is an "event" film for two reasons:

1. The trailer was engaging, almost like that of a short film.

2. It's more or less 'MERICA propaganda. It's on record with the courts that Chris Kyle was a fucking liar, but that doesn't stop small town America or the south from driving out in record numbers to buy tickets (ahem, The Passion of the Christ, ahem).

I think studios are more willing not to sacrifice R-rated films and edit them into PG-13 for that all mighty dollar as we saw last decade. There were a slew of R-rated films last year that made good money even if none of them were blockbusters (Tammy, Let's Be Cops, Annabelle, The Purge: Anarchy, and Horrible Bosses 2 are some that pulled in over $50M domestic). To be fair, some of those films were done on the cheap (Annabelle and Purge were both done for under $10M, Let's Be Cops only cost $17M). I wonder if sequels/reboots like Robocop would've preformed better if studios aimed for the R rather than PG-13.

Looking at upcoming R-rated films, Fifty Shades of Grey will cross $100M easily based upon the source material and females have made blockbusters out of similar releases like Sex and the City and Magic Mike. I think The Boy Next Door will do well (besides the fact its another Blumhouse micro-budget thriller). I don't think Kingsman is going to do well considering Kick-Ass and its sequel both misfired at the box office. Everything else that's R-rated over the next month or two is going to be DOA as nobody asked for Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and The Loft has been sitting on a shelf now for years.

resinrats

Maybe the studio just figured American Sniper wasn't going to appeal to teens that much so they weren't going to try to get a PG-13 in hopes teenagers would flock to it.

I wouldn't hold my breath for some R rated Marvel movie or some movie that a lot of teen will want to see.

Alan Smithee

I wish NC-17 would make a comeback- it's silly how afraid the studios are about getting that rating. 50 Shades of Grey was speculated to get an NC-17 but they probably cut one frame or so out of it to get an R. Blockbuster's dead and buried now too, and they were one of the top reasons in the beginning why that rating was avoided.

creekdipper

Yes, and we all know how the Academy loves to promote 'Murican propoganda.

Argo was American propoganda & filled with absolute fabrications, too, and it was recognized by the Academy, so you may be on to something.

Would like to see the numbers from all regions (including metro areas) before jumping to conclusion that "small town America or the south [sic]" are driving the numbers. You may be correct, or it may be playing pretty well everywhere.

Lot of good info. in your post, by the way.

creekdipper

Watchmen didn't exactly set big records unless I'm very wrong. I think the worldwide box office was $185 million on a $130 million budget.

hanshotfirst1138

Watchmen is something of a cult favorite among fans of the comic for its fidelity to the source material, but wasn't it a commercial dud? The deconstruction of the superhero genre saying that what they do is basically fascist and trying to ask political questions runs counter to audience expectations of seeing good guys beat up bad guys at the end, for starters.

Matthew Chmiel

I enjoyed Argo despite its loose basis on reality. I only think Argo won Best Picture as it looks and feels as if it was made in the '70s. That's also why The Artist won, it looked and felt like a silent film made nearly a century ago. The Academy eats that shit up because most of the members should've died due to old age at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if The Grand Budapest Hotel took the award too for that simple point, but I'd argue they'd vote against it the flick comes off more European than American.

Also, most films that would be considered "Oscar fare" play extremely well on the coasts, in metropolitan areas, and absolutely nowhere else. Example: The Social Network was huge on the coasts on its opening weekend, but underperformed everywhere else. The film was able to make it to $100M simply due to word of mouth after its first week as it had very minimal drops from weekend to weekend.

You're correct, but Warner was in it more for the long haul. With it being a Warner release, they own all the rights for it both domestically and internationally. The film did over $100M on home video domestically and who knows how well it did overseas (those numbers aren't really reported or made public). With Warner also owning DC Comics, they were also able to make money off a twenty-year-old graphic novel due to the public's renewed interest in the property. Yeah, it underperformed, but it was worth the gamble as it made back decent money.

hanshotfirst1138

Do video sales matter at all anymore? I guess you'd measure download sales now, but given how many people are likely to rent rather than buy in that case, I wonder how they skew.

Rypro 525

2 of the big theater chains (AMC & Cinemark) for the most part do not show NC-17 films though i think the big AMC in Manhattan did show Shame

Matthew Chmiel

Home video sales aren't as prevalent as they once were, but some films can still make a killing in the physical market. I wish digital rentals and sales were made public like that of home video (The Interview is an exception to the rule). If Frozen was able to do $340M+ domestically on Blu-ray and DVD, I wonder how much money Disney made on services like iTunes and VUDU where they walk away with 70% of the gross from both rentals and sales.

The big chains will show NC-17 (or unrated) films, its just that no studio has really shown an initiative to go "all in" for a film with that rating and no theater chain wants to utilize extra manpower to guarantee nobody under 17 ends up watching that movie. Showgirls was able to make it in over a thousand locations as UA went all in, but that turned out to be a disaster considering how poorly received the film was. In today's market, there's no reason for a high profile release to go out as an NC-17 as you're now leaving money off the table my releasing and marketing an unrated home video release with footage too hot to show in theaters... whereas that can be carried in Target and Wal-Mart alongside the 50 Shades of Grey cock rings.

Shannon Nutt

These types of conversations always entertain me. A R-Rated movie does well..."Are R-Rated movies making a comeback?" A Western does well "Are Westerns making a comeback?" Etc., etc.

Bottom line is: Make good movies and audiences will go see them. It has little to do with rating or theme...it has everything to do with story and presentation.

RichC2

Yes, Video Sales are still usually the second biggest source of income for a movie. Video rentals, not so much.

American Sniper is playing great across all regions, you can't ignore the fact that when it was only playing in 4 theaters (1 in LA, 1 in Texas, 2 in NYC) it was grossing $160,000 per theater each weekend which makes it I believe the 2nd, 3rd and 4th highest Per Theater Average of all time (#1 is Grand Budapest Hotel, this is for regular releases only, not "special event" ones like Disney does (upwards of $75+ a ticket) or Red State (I believe $20+ a ticket w/ Smith doing a show afterward)). The difference between Argo and American Sniper is Argo was a thoroughly well made movie with moments of tension and reasonably well developed characters. American Sniper skimped on the characterization, including that of Kyle, and while the trailer was tense a lot of that was missing from the movie itself.

Accurate or not, American Sniper had faults as a movie.

Mondo Kane

Unless Jupiter or Spongebob does surprising business, it looks like Sniper (Which won the weekend again) will hand the #1 spot over to 50/Grey.
I'm no box-office historian, but will this be the most longest streak of R-rated movies that ever sat on top of the box-office?

davidh777

It helped that Warner released Watchmen and its peripheral films about a dozen times.

Mike86

Yeah I agree. People tend to over-emphasize the importance of a rating. For certain films it may make a difference, but generally speaking films can get away with quite a bit now days without being R rated.

RichC2

Spongebob is expected to make $35m so it should dethrone Sniper.

Bluelitespecial

I think this question might be answered when Mad Max comes out. Judging from the trailers, Warner Bros has a brutal action movie that hasnt been made for a long time and looks like it could be rated R. I hope they give it a chance for the rating.

Mondo Kane

Top 3 movies at the box office this weekend were rated R. Has that ever happened?