Did “Watchmen” kill “Terminator: Salvation” R-rating?
Well, Watchmen dropped another 62% in its third weekend at theaters, and now IESB reports that Warner Bros. is no longer interested in making superhero/tentpole movies with an R-rating. “Watchmen” was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed seeing it, but I’m not sure it’s the R-rating that is keeping people away, but rather that these just weren’t very well known characters outside of the graphic novel fans.
First of all, I found it to be a very smart story, and not a mindless popcorn flick where you just watch things blow up. This may not be what people were expecting, and thus resulting in bad word of mouth, which has been hurting the film, weekend after weekend. Personally, I think this movie would have done even worse with a PG-13 rating. The people who hated it, would still have hated it, but you would have pissed off all the people who were fans of the graphic novel, for not being true to the material.
So, now Warner Bros. is misreading the situation as people don’t want to see an R-rated superhero/hero movie. Look at “Terminator: salvation”. McG said up front that he wants this movie to turn out however it turns out, meaning that if his final vision ends up rated-R, then so be it. Warner Bros. on the other hand, wants this flick to be PG-13. “The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” have shown these PG-13 movies can be highly profitable, but if you recall, the original Terminator movies were rated-R and fantastic.
Well it seems that the problem Warner Bros. and McG are having is over a scene in which Moon Bloodgood is standing naked in the rain. McG really wants the scene in, but Warner Bros. wants to cut it in order to get the PG-13 rating. Now that Watchmen has had a less than stellar showing over the last couple of weekends, I don’t think Warner Bros. will let him have that R-rating.
I can respect McG’s artistic vision, but at the same time I can understand Warner Bros. position. If the scene doesn’t really add anything to the story, why not cut it, save it for the dvd director’s cut or whatever, and then they can really make bank on the film.
I would fully expect “Terminator: Salvation” to be PG-13.
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