Beware, lovers of movie ratings: They might be next on Art the Clown‘s victims list.
For decades, the commercial prospects of a film, especially those appealing to children, were closely tied to the Motion Picture Association’s all-important ratings scale of G to NC-17. Last year, the unrated (but ultraviolent) slasher flick “Terrifier 3” took a bloody machete to all of that, raking in $54 million at the box office against a $2 million budget.
Moviegoers of all ages were dying to check it out, even teenagers technically not allowed to see it. “Terrifier” director Damien Leone had a couple approach him on opening weekend to ask: “Dude, can you sneak us in?”
Marvel’s game-changing “Deadpool & Wolverine,” while not exactly for kids, also played like an all-ages blockbuster. The foul-mouthed buddy movie hit it big with $1.3 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time and No. 2 for all of 2024 (behind only Pixar’s “Inside Out 2”).
Traditionally, a movie slapped with an adults-only NC-17 rating, or that has no rating at all, has struggled to make any money.
“Most of the major theater chains would not play a film if it’s not rated,” says Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. “What ‘Terrifier 3’ ended up doing, and I don’t think they did it on purpose, is blowing the doors off the rating system. It’s no longer a roadblock.”
The success of the “Terrifier” franchise has opened up the floodgates: Cineverse, distributor of the “Terrifier” movies, will unleash two unrated remakes of cult classics this year, “The Toxic Avenger” (coming to theaters in August) and “Silent Night, Deadly Night” (out this holiday season).
CinemaCon begins this week in Las Vegas for theater owners and studios to show off their finest wares, hoping to offset a disappointing first quarter. They’ll need all the help they can get, even if that’s from a mutant vigilante and a murderous Santa Claus: The box office is down 11% from the same period in 2024, according to Comscore.
Do audiences actually pay attention to what a movie is rated?
If unrated movies can rack up huge numbers – and home streaming allows anyone to watch anything at any time – do movie ratings even matter anymore?
“I sure hope so,” says Betsy Bozdech, editorial director and head of ratings and reviews for Common Sense Media, a recommendations website aimed at families. She believes that movie ratings are still “most critical” for parents of children learning – and wanting – to make their own media choices.
“When they’re really little, you have pretty much sole control over what they’re able to access. You control the remote,” Bozdech says. “And then when they’re teens, honestly, the wheels are kind of off at that point. You can do your best and you can certainly have family rules, and you can hope that they’re going to stick with those rules. But you’re like, let’s hope we’ve taught you the right lessons and you’re not doing anything that’s going to be too upsetting down the line.”
In that in-between era, ages 6 or 7 to early teens, “a lot of families are still looking for guidance on what is appropriate,” Bozdech adds.
Movie theaters have long enjoyed an unspoken ‘contract’ with parents
As a 39-year-old New Yorker, Daniel Loria acknowledges that movie ratings haven’t been relevant to him since he was 17 – the age when a child can see an R-rated movie without an accompanying parent or guardian. However, as the father of a 1½-year-old daughter, they probably will be more important for him in 10 years.
“It’s a wild west online and at home,” says Loria, content strategy and editorial director at Boxoffice Pro. “But when you go to a movie theater, there’s a contract there, with a parent dropping off a kid in a lot of occasions. That’s supposed to be a place where the parent has to have trust with that business.”
There’s a history of ratings changing with the times: PG-13 was added to the system in 1984, thanks to graphic scenes in kid-appealing PG movies like “Gremlins” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” But films without ratings getting mainstream theatrical releases, such as “Terrifier 3” and the Beyoncé concert film “Renaissance,” are a more recent phenomenon. (Though understandably, moms and dads are more concerned about Art than Bey.)
Theaters came to embrace unrated movies because ‘they were a little desperate’
Bock says there used to be “a lot of pressure” from movie studios to keep unrated movies out of theaters, though that mindset changed in the wake of COVID-19, when studios delayed releases and cinemas stared down an existential crisis. When “Terrifier 2” came out at the tail end of the pandemic three years ago, the unrated film made a huge profit.
“Everything was shut down and there was that scare that (the theater exhibition industry) was going to come to an end. They were more willing to accept non-traditional movies at that point because they were a little desperate,” Leone says.
“There just wasn’t enough content for theaters,” Bock adds. “And so they were reaching out for anything they could get: ‘Oh, it’s not rated? Well, we don’t care anymore.’ ”
What theaters do still care about, though, is making sure the right audiences see the right movies. With “Terrifier 3,” chains like AMC Theatres showed it under a policy akin to those for R-rated movies (meaning anyone under 17 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian) – and they stuck by it. Leone notes theater employees being “stricter than I thought” they’d be at the opening weekend of “Terrifier 3.” (He also heard reports of teens and tweens buying tickets to PG-rated “The Wild Robot” and then sneaking into “Terrifier”: “Kids will find a way if they really want to see it.”)
But the cinemas themselves got in on the fun, with Art the Clown commemorative popcorn buckets, in-store promotions and “Terrifier” double features. “It wasn’t like we snuck this movie into theaters,” says Cineverse chairman and CEO Chris McGurk. “The theater owners actively helped us promote it and helped make it a huge success. That just shows you how much the world is changing.”
‘Terrifier’ found a ‘rebel’ fan base. Is ‘The Toxic Avenger’ next?
If there’s a negative to releasing unrated movies, McGurk hasn’t found it yet. Cineverse is “this rogue independent studio that’s all about helping artists get their films in front of audiences,” he says, and having an unrated movie in theaters is “a great marketing hook at this point.”
It worked for “Terrifier 3” and he thinks it also will for Cineverse’s 2025 slate. “Silent Night, Deadly Night” is a new take on the controversial 1984 killer Santa film pulled from theaters amid parental outrage, while satirical horror comedy “Toxic Avenger” stars Peter Dinklage as a janitor transformed into a mutant vigilante doling out extreme violence with his mop. Part of the latter’s appeal is “this movie doesn’t give an eff about what the MPA says or anybody else,” McGurk says. “It’s a subversive rebel movie and let’s go out and enjoy it.”
Also, McGurk adds, “the unrated nature a little bit says, ‘Danger!’ That really helped us with ‘Terrifier’ because a lot of our campaign was, ‘You don’t want to miss out on this one. Dare to go.’ We challenged people to go see it.”
If you’re adverse to barfing, or don’t want to see a dog die, there’s a warning system for that
Leone’s current challenge? Writing a fourth “Terrifier.” Even though he prefers the creative freedoms of an unrated film, Leone sees ratings as an “essential” aspect of moviegoing. “Because a 10-year-old kid shouldn’t be able to go see ‘Terrifier 3’ just out of nowhere, especially if he has no idea what he’s walking into.”
He specifically appreciates the descriptors that the MPA started adding to individual ratings in 1990 − for example, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is rated R for “strong bloody violence and language throughout, gore and sexual references.” With those, “you’re painting a broader picture of what to expect,” Leone says.
Though the official ratings system hasn’t evolved much this century, online culture has picked up the slack. Bozdech says there are social-media influencers and creators utilizing content advisories, and not just for the youngsters. For example, “I am a person who hates barfing and I just have to tell you about this movie I saw and it had all these barf scenes.”
There are also niche sites like doesthedogdie.com, which crowdsources trigger warnings in films and other entertainment, and Common Sense Media offers an alternative, more granular ratings system than the MPA’s.
Movie ratings aren’t perfect or for everybody, but Loria figures they will always be important to concerned parents when their film-loving kids go out to the theater: “Here’s 20 bucks. I kind of want to know what you’re going to watch this weekend.”
