I've voted undecided because it depends on what kind of movie you have.
I agree with alot of you guys here that FOx screwed up Die Hard 4 by making it PG-13 movie. But these days it seems that studios are just throwing in cash and afterwards realising that the movie is becoming too expensive ...hence their decision to ditch the R rating .
These days when it's rare that movies have legs , movies need to make the most of their money within the first 3-4 weeks. To me at last , the R rating will forever be coupled with the budget of the movie.
Anything below 100 million will most likely mean that the R rating is a guarantee ( thought some studios like Fox will probably screw even that up)
Between 100-140 million will cause huge discussions between the director and studio exec.. Especially if that number goes towards the 140 million. There will a huge amount of pressure fromthe studio to go for the Pg-13 rating. Movies like Troy are an exception because of the star-studded cast.
ABove 140 million you can pretty much rule out that the movie will have a R rating.
The above is an important factor in decided just what kind of movie your making. In some cases the R rating actually is needed to help the story. Look at Saving Private Ryan. Probably the best example of the use of blood and gore. It actually portrays just how gruesome war really is. Ditto with Schindler's List. In this movies ,the director is going for realism and with that subject material you have to go R.
Then again movies like Casino Royale and The Dark Knight don't need the R rating. Yes we need to maturity of the characters but times have changed and you can go have pretty brutal scenes ( the fights in Casino Royale , Den't scarring in TDK) without the gore.
If you have a character who constantly swears ( McClane) , there really is no excuse to downgrade that franchise. I put the blame on Fox entirely. They included all these action scenes and when the movie became too expensive they went for the Pg-13 rating. Movies like Terminator had some pretty gruesome scenes. There was very little swearing but scenes like the John\s father being impaled or the audience actually seeing a guy getting shot in both kneecaps at that the time justified the R rating.
I would say that both Terminator movies would've probably been rated Pg-13 if they removed the sex scene in T1 and degraded some of the blood in T2.
And sometimes you're really left wondering if the R rating really is needed in ALL it's glory. Hell i love Watchmen ( the book & movie) but honestly do we need to see Manhatten's schlong everytime ? I understand the point of Dr Manhatten being so detached from humanity that he ditched everything ( even his clothes) but c'mon. Ditto with the sex scene. Yes it is an r rating so we'll see some boobs and butts but slomo thrusting.
huh:
