Deadpool really pulled it off this weekend with a gross of over $300 million worldwide. While a success for the property itself, it’s huge victory for comic properties for a more mature audience. Long has it been thought a comic-film with an R-Rating would have limited success due to the ratings restrictive nature. Previous attempts have found varying success or failure:
(All Total Are Final Worldwide Gross)
- Blade – $131 million
- Blade II – $155 milllion
- Blade Trinity – $129 million
- Watchmen – $185 million
- Punisher (2004) – $54.7 million
- Punisher Warzone – $10 million
- Ghost Rider $228 million
- 300 – $456 million
- Spawn – $87 million
- Dredd – $41 million
- Kick Ass – $96 million
- Kick Ass 2 – $59 million
To say that Deadpool is a success compared to the others is quite an understatement considering its $300 million came in through 3 days. It’s success is inspiring those behind the scene to look at comic properties again that were once thought unwarranted for a film due to their mature content and feared box office failure.
Here are some examples of comic book properties that would most likely get the R rating that are worth a shot.
Wolverine 3
For the last several months it has been heavily rumored that Wolverine 3 will be or will be heavily influenced by the instant classic “Old Man Logan” story by Marc Millar, where Logan has become an old man sworn to never use his claws again and undertakes one last adventure to insure the survival of his family. It draws heavily from Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, and is one of the greatest Wolverine tales to date that draws more drama to the blood caused by the protagonist by sparsing it out to make it mean that much more. However, there are plenty of others in the story who unleash an R-Rated quality and quantity of violence and it’s filled with more adult themes throughout.
Just yesterday, Fox handed out pamphlets during its Toy Fair presentation showing that they were anticipating and aiming for the R-Rating. Considering how much they just pulled in from, Deadpool, it’s little surprise that they are the first ones announcing they are taking a previously PG-13 property and adding in more violence and adult themes to match its original property.
Long have fans waited for Wolverine to go berserker rage and actually use his claws on his enemies and soon we will finally have our chance to see it.
X-Force
Immediately following Deadpool’s release, the internet was ablaze with who would play Cable, his long time partner in the series “Cable & Deadpool”, and in the same week, Ryan Reynolds told fans that his next pet project to get off the ground would be X-Force, a team both members have been a part of and one that’s been rumored for a film for many years.
“X-Force” is a team that was created in the 90’s that featured a more militant group of mutants than the X-Men and was more mature in nature. It’s had various versions including two different ones that featured a team led by Wolverine. In one, Wolverine led a team of previous known killers like X-23 and Warpath and had them performing black ops missions under orders of Cyclops, while Wolverine’s second team in the series, featuring Deadpool, followed them performing missions on their own, against Cyclops’ order to disband, while they tracked down preliminary threats to the mutant race and executed them prior to an incident.
Rumors indicate members from various different incarnations of the team could be seen, including Cable and Deadpool. Think X-Men meets Expendables. It’s highly likely that this film could be the third in the Deadpool series following its use of Cable in the sequel.
Blade
The film that started the new wave of comic book films following the disaster of Batman and Robin, has been rumored for years to be getting a remake or reboot or some continuation inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What made Blade stand out was its horror influence, and that is an area/genre still not being covered currently inside the MCU. While they’ve had various genres touched upon by the various films, a new Blade film could showcase all the evil things that go bump in the night coming up against the darker side of the MCU’s heroes.
Fury
While ABC has been putting out it’s own show about the secret agents running around behind the scenes, there is still plenty of room for a film to showcase why Nick Fury is the world’s greatest spy. Considering how often they use Nick Fury to tie the films together, rarely have they shown him doing much of anything. Why not a film dedicated to Nick Fury’s off screen adventures that showcase why he is the world’s greatest spy. An R-Rating would open the story up to the more adult themes associated with Spy Movies and a level of grizzled violence for Fury to prove why he is the best.
Winter Soldier
Similar to above, there is plenty of room in the MCU for more mature themed films with higher levels of violence given the nature of the property they were based on. A Winter Soldier film could showcase him on the run between Captain America films as he struggles to find his identity and could feature his life as an assassin in flashbacks as he begins to remember all the terrible things he has done.
Marvel Zombies
Let’s file this under “wishing and hoping”. The “Marvel Zombies” comic series featured the entire Marvel Universe being consumed by a Zombie Apocalypse and features everyone’s favorite heroes turning into brain-eating undead. it’s highly unlikely they would spend the Avenger’s size budget to get the cast on board for an elseworlds tale of zombie horror, but why not just recast it and film at a lower budget with an alternate style/tone. Most film goers have become smart enough to figure out which films take place inside which universe and could easily figure out this doesn’t take place in the normal MCU. Recasting it, with the same roles but cheaper actors for a one off tale of blood, guts, and zombies could be hilarious and shocking.
Ben Affleck’s Batman
This may be equally as unlikely. Batman is almost a guaranteed success already at a PG-13 rating, so putting an R-Rating on it would put a limit on the intake for any parents who would want to take their children who would want to go. However, Batman has had plenty of R quality stories over the years in the books due its mature content from time to time. The books have featured violence and torment time and time again that are unsuitable for youngsters, but a film has a wider reach and would be far more effected if given the big R. However, there are plenty of stories that are worth telling that should be given their full range and capabilities to explore in their storytelling. The Killing Joke is an upcoming animated film that been allowed the R-Rating to tell its story with no restrictions. Equally worthy are the recent stories by Scott Snyder “Endgame”, “Death of the Family” and “The Black Mirror”.
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