09/14/2005 Archived Entry: "What I Don’t Understand"
Is the aversion to adult-oriented material, by which I don’t mean porn or hyper-realistic violence or what not but just solid R-rated stuff. Analyses at boxofficemojo.com always have some executive being surprised at how well R rated films do, recent examples being Wedding Crashers and 40 Year Old Virgin.
A few reasons I can think of all the way up and down the demand/supply chain:
Pressure from “special interest groups”. Those “think of the children” crazies who insist that all entertainment products be wholesome enough for their impressionable 10 year olds to consume. These small but vocal minorities are able to attract enough attention that no one is willing to go through the trouble of fighting them. These guys are just too lazy to do their own parenting and want a sheltered existence for their kids. Maybe they don’t even have kids and just want the rest of us to watch teletubbies.
Audiences. A PG movie will of course be available to a larger segment of the population, but I can’t imagine that the difference made up by the 1-day olds to 18 year olds would be large enough to try to make every movie with them in mind.
Distribution. Some places just refuse to carry adult material. Wal-Mart and Toys ‘R Us, as seen by the Hot Coffee fiasco, try to remain “family oriented”. I remember Roger Ebert going on very long rants about how Blockbuster insisted on not carrying R movies for the longest time, forcing studios to tone as much down to PG-13 as possible. Movie theatres are also guilty of this seeing as pretty much none of them ever show anything NC-17. The question is why? Do adults just not want more mature forms of entertainment and if not, why not? Why does my local cinema show a 10:30 pm viewing of the latest G-rated Disney movie to 2-4 people instead of something like Havoc, which even though might only attract 2-4 people would cost them less to show.
This post was inspired by a recent decision by Marvel Comics. Their line of “mature comics” includes the title Supreme Power, a “realistic” take on superhumans taking over the world. Supreme Power is one of their only two R rated books, but they’ve decided to move it to PG-13 by taking out all the swearing and nudity in hopes that it will sell better as a PG-13 title. While this makes legitimate business sense and the book will no doubt sell several thousand more copies than ever, I just have to wonder why it will. By most, if not all, accounts comic books are read mainly by adults in their 30s – most of them male. Why do 30 year old makes avoid books with a fully naked Wonder Woman clone but will buy it if guaranteed that wisps of clouds cover her naughty bits? I just don’t understand…
Replies: 9 comments
Maybe those 30yr olds are fearful of their wives reaction to what they're reading? Or are you claiming that 30yr old comic book readers are single and lonely...:P!!
Posted by dAN @ 09/15/2005 12:49 PM EST
if that's what he's claiming then he's in trouble when he turns 30!!
Posted by Anonymous @ 09/16/2005 01:39 AM EST
We live in a strange world.
On the television, you see victims of bombing every day. On your pc you learn how to be a perfect killer and see how blood gushes out when you stab a man with a knife. And as I heard, childern aparently know more about sex than we adults do.
On the other hand, when you're a youngster, you can't see a movie with a bit of explosion or a bit of romantic love . because, REALLY, you have ever seen a pornographic movie? romance, yes, but porn? i don't think so...
Posted by Dries Driessens @ 09/16/2005 04:18 AM EST
That reply above makes no sense...
Posted by dAN @ 09/16/2005 11:03 AM EST
it'll be a sad, sad day when a child knows more about sex than I do.
Posted by Rayne @ 09/16/2005 03:37 PM EST
are you sure that day hasn't already arrived?
Posted by melpie @ 09/16/2005 05:38 PM EST
in other strange things - i used to have a penpal from belgium named dries driessens (back in the day of letter writing and the international horizon expansion experiences of high school)
think that's him? *points to above comments*
Posted by melpie @ 09/16/2005 05:41 PM EST
is it you, melissa? if so, how are you? you can contact me offline at dries-at-jhtobit-dot-be
Posted by Dries Driessens @ 09/16/2005 07:12 PM EST
Once public opinion about violence and sex in movies disapates, you'll see more r-rated films at the forefront. People lose interest in causes that don't benefit their lifestyles, and everyone loves an R film. Look at violence in video games and rap music. After the Columbine shootings, the big enemy was rap music and video games with shooting it in. So parents kept their kids away (as much as they could anyhow) from those sorts of media. When's the last time you heard any news exclusives on that topic. People lost interest, and music and video game sales have bounced back. Movie companies will too. Big movies this year were SIN CITY, 40YOV and wedding crashers...all great ..all R-Rated.
Posted by Doug @ 09/17/2005 01:41 PM EST