After much speculation and discussion, it looks like Fox honcho Tom Rothman has stayed true to his word that Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" "will not be compromised" — it will be rated R.
The confirmation comes of the heels of a flurry of reports this morning of advance tickets bearing an R rating on them, and Collider has confirmed with the studio that film will indeed be R for “sci-fi violence including some intense images, and brief language.” Hooray for artistic freedom, but this decision will be watched very closely. While there is no budget figure out just yet, there is no doubt this a hugely expensive picture, and one with a far more limited audience that something like "The Avengers." Can the movie bring in the business it needs to make this endeavor profitable? Can Fox break the movie out of the geek box and make it appealing to mainstream audiences? They've got one month left to go on the marketing campaign to make it happen. We suggest a campaign for Taco Bell led by Michael Fassbender's David.
Anyway, the movie opens on June 8th and if you're under 17, find a parent or guardian or older brother to bring with you. And in case you needed even more footage, here's a another TV spot (via Scifi Mania) with a few more glimpses of what's to come (clearly made before the MPAA rating came down).
Now all the fanboys are complaining because it's not rated R enough! The thing is it was never gonna be a hard R, that was the whole point of the issue. It was on the border of R and PG13. Personally I'm glad it's R but I don't need extreme gore or constant swearing to be pleased.
I don't think there is any question this movie will be "profitable." We have to remember the original 1979 Alien's domestic gross, adjusting for inflation, is nearly $240 million, so Ridley Scott already has proven an R-rated sci-fi horror can have a sizable domestic gross. The budget is probably somewhere in the $150-$250 million area, and I don't think this film will have any trouble getting to $150 million at the domestic box office. The R-Rated Matrix Reloaded and Terminator 3, which I take to be comparables, both pulled in over $200 million at the domestic box office and that was in 2003. I think people are more exciting about Prometheus than they were for either of those two films (and I suspect Prometheus will be a superior product). On top of that, 3-D tickets are more expensive so I think this easily makes a large profit despite the R-rating. The R-rating will, of course, hurt it. Without the 13-15 year old crowd (my working assumption is by 16 almost all parents let there children see R-rated movies), you probably won't be able to crack $300 million domestically. Based on comparables, I think a conservative estimate for the film is $175 million domestically (I personally think it will break the $200 million barrier though). Going with my generalized 40% domestic, 60% foreign gross rule-of-thumb for blockbusters I think it's fair to say Prometheus will probably, at minimum, gross $425-450 million worldwide. I don't think higher numbers are out-of-question though. Not exactly Avatar, but that should be enough to satisfy the studio execs. My guess is why they don't want to try to compromise Scott's vision too much is that they want to keep Scott happy for future sequels, not because they suddenly want to respect artistic vision. By the way, Rothman is obviously lying. If this can back NC-17, he would have definitely compromised Scotts' artistic vision.
R-Rated Reaction: Fucking Great News!
you only have to be 17 for a rated R movie.