For every R-rated success story like “Deadpool” ($782 million worldwide) there’s two more “The Nice Guys” ($36 million) or “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” ($9.4 million), and it’s why studios continue to be wary of limiting the four-quadrant potential of their movies by making them inaccessible to teenagers. R-ratings remain a risk, and one that executives are only willing to make if the metrics and calculations make sense (re: low budget), but for his last outing as Wolverine, Hugh Jackman reportedly wanted to make sure he gave the fans the R-rated movie they’ve been longing for.
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At this weekend’s annual movie marathon Butt-Numb-A-Thon, James Mangold appeared to show off the first 40 minutes of “Logan,” and during a Q&A said Jackman took a pay cut in order to ensure the movie could go R-rated.
That’s what it takes these days in Hollywood if you’re going to make something that excludes under-18s or is geared solely toward adults (it’s why everyone worked for scale on Martin Scorsese’s “Silence,” for example). And it’s a nice gesture on Jackman’s part who could’ve easily just collected his paycheck and dealt with whatever PG-13 version he would’ve had to make, but it looks like he wanted to go for broke his last time out.
“Logan” opens on March 3, 2017. [Screenrant]
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