When Logan got an R-rating, and the substance to back it up, it was clear that the movie industry had embraced the trend begun by Deadpool in 2016. It was easy for them to do; pretty much everyone can embrace $783 million in box office revenue. This trend was to consider R-rated comic book movies for wider audience engagement and success–in other words, as tentpoles, not just as filler movies for the audience segments in the cold dark months of mid-winter. Proving just this, an X-Men franchise film, Logan, went ultra-violent, and owned its R-rating; this from a franchise that had previously avoided alienating market segments by doing so. It may have had something to do with timing, and Hugh Jackman’s purported hanging up of the Wolvy claws, or …
Or … this happened: Deadpool 2 will bow on June 1, 2018, giving it a “prime summer opening.” By contrast, Deadpool opened on February 12, a spot usually reserved for movies to go to die. It’s pretty big news for the genre and the future of genre films and by no means does this necessarily pertain only to comic book movies–your next Smurfs flick might just contain a few F-bombs.
What movies that traditionally might avoid R-ratings would you like to see take the plunge and put on a pair of big boy pants what with the boobs, the booze, the bullets, and the bombs?
Best suggestion and tagline gets a sticker.
[Via Variety]
