On the topic of watering down franchises...

Have you guys watched the new trailer for the new Mad Max movie? Man, that was fucking sweet, wasn't it?

Anyway, how do you feel about it being PG-13? Just curious. Because, I mean, Dredd only had like a $45 million budget and flopped despite widespread commercial and critical acclaim. Fury Road was (from what I saw) initially given a $100 million budget and then went significantly over budget due to various issues. So no mistake...it's almost certain that this is gonna be a PG-13 watering down of an R-rated franchise.

So, and here's my main question: After seeing that sweet ass trailer, is anyone here actually worried about this movie being watered down to PG-13? People complained about Alien vs Predator being PG-13, people complained about Die Hard being PG-13, people complained about Robocop being PG-13. But I just saw this sweet-ass trailer for an upcoming movie which is almost certainly gonna be PG-13, and based on an R-rated franchise. And the overwhelming sentiment I'm seeing is "holy shit, this looks amazing" rather than "this PG-13 crap sucks."

So can we please stop with the "wah, this movie in an R-rated franchise is PG-13 instead of R" crap? Would I prefer Fury Road to be R? Of course. But the vast majority of the time, the major problems are gonna have nothing to do with the rating.

I still maintain that it is entirely possible to make a good PG-13 Robocop or Die Hard or Alien sequel. People bitch about "wah, it's PG-13", but that's side-stepping the issue. The only reason people care that it's PG-13 instead of R is because the franchise was already established as R. Meanwhile, that means IT'S A FRANCHISE, which is something that most movies never set out to ever be. The mere fact that it's a franchise usually means that people have stopped giving a shit at that point and are merely dreaming of money when they go to sleep, and they've stopped paying attention to talent. And THAT is what annoys people when they see an R-rated franchise watered down into a PG-13 sequel. They're not really concerned about the rating. They're concerned that the new rating means that the creators have stopped giving a shit about talent (most of the time).

Does anyone else agree with me here? That's got to be the case. Because otherwise, people would be looking at this new Mad Max trailer and instead of saying "OMG, that looks fucking amazing", saying "**** this PG-13 shit, there's no way this is gonna be anything other than a PG-13 watering down of an R-rated franchise."

Revelations isn't a franchise lol.

Anyway, I don't know anything about the original Max Maxes so I wouldn't know and am not bothered.

Are you high or something? What do Revelations or spaghetti or the Cookie Monster have to do with this topic? Did I mention any of those things in the original post?

I'm with you, PG-13 doesn't have to mean watered down in the least. Take The Hunger Games for example, a bunch of kids kill each other and somehow they don't show enough blood to make an R rating. Despite that the franchise touches upon themes of violence, death, politics, survival, reality shows, and the media to make a film that any adult should be able to enjoy and consider it a fully fleshed out series.

To counter that lets look at the Die Hard series, the rated R films tend to be rated R simply because of the blood and language, but ultimately it's the stuff many people's childhoods are made of. Many of them are quite good, but it's hardly a series I take particularly seriously.

It seems like you could push the envelope a bit more as far as content with a PG-13 rating these days than what could have been done about 20 years ago, so it may not seem so bad anymore. Unless you're looking for gore, non-stop swearing and nudity, them you may be S.O.L. I think most studios prefer the PG-13 because you can get more younger viewers to go see it without having to drag an adult because of the R rating.

As far as Dredd goes, I think the reason it didn't do well theatrically was not so much the R rating, but because Lionsgate decided to open it during the end of September instead of the prime summer movie season, between May and the end of August. It was a shame, because it was a kick ass movie that deserved to do better.

Regardless of whatever rating Fury Road gets, I'm going opening weekend, and that's something I rarely do anymore. That shit looks insane.

If you build it (good), I will come.

In a way I guess

I thought the thread title was a obvious reference to what we were talking about in the other thread. But ok. O_0

I think publishers tend to misinterpret their demographics. There are more adults with money out there than teenagers. Stop making the movies appeal to teenagers (or teenage-minded people) and make movies for adults.