James Gunn promises more R-rated movies from DC Studios, prompting the question: is this the future of superhero cinema?
Deadpool & Wolverine is arguably the biggest commercial success story of 2024’s cinema. It didn’t quite manage to beat Inside Out 2 for the title of the highest grossing film of the year (at least for now), but it did reinvigorate Marvel and its bumpy recent slate of movies.. We weren’t huge fans, but the film got people into cinemas in huge numbers at a very useful time.
On Marvel’s part, bringing Ryan Reynolds’ R-rated motormouth to the larger MCU was a risk, but one that clearly paid off. The studio has so far been known for its family-friendly films with safe, mild jokes that seldom run the risk of causing offence.
Deadpool & Wolverine though… Well, let’s just say it didn’t exactly hold back on the dirty jokes, most of them involving the male appendage.
It’s also a signifier of changing times.
James Gunn, the co-CEO of DC Studios, recently told Collider that the studio has multiple R-rated projects in the works. More interestingly, Gunn isn’t keen on waiting to see how R-rated films do at the box office – if a story works better with more swearing, blood and adult themes, then that’s the path the resulting movie will take.
“We’re not about that,” Gunn told the outlet. “We’re not about ‘See how it does.’ We’ve got one opportunity to take these characters and really press forward and do what we believe. I am a great believer that if we tell good, authentic stories, if a movie does well or doesn’t do as well, if you keep with that same philosophy, that you’re going to build a universe that people are going to love and want to be a part of for a long time.”
It sounds as though we might be about to see more R-rated superhero films in the near future. Marvel has been in a bit of a creative rut of late, and Deadpool & Wolverine proved that an R-rating isn’t necessarily a roadblock when it comes to box office success. It might have taken the plunge because it was backed into a commercial corner, but a billion dollars or so in takings is very useful change.
Read more: The Deadpool And Wolverine debate | Cinema’s saviour, or scraping the barrel?
A higher age rating inevitably restricts who can watch the film in cinemas, but perhaps it attracts another type of fan, the kind that wants to see the action of the comic books unfiltered on screen.
The Deadpool films have always existed outside of the main MCU canon – indeed, they were originally backed by a completely different studio – but they’ve reviewed and performed strongly. Up until now, Marvel has seemingly always wanted to cater to as large an audience as possible (while existing within Disney brackets), while Gunn’s approach seems to offer something for everyone rather than assuming everyone wants the same product.
DC has always felt like Marvel’s slightly more angsty cousin (not a bad thing), but even it’s mostly stuck to the forgiving PG-13 rating. Gunn is clearly trying to change this and the darker DC films have done very well for the studio previously. Although Christopher Nolan’s Batman films aren’t technically part of the old DCEU and were rated PG-13, they already provided insight that there is a market for thematically darker superhero films. After all, The Dark Knight was the highest grossing film of 2008. Still, the 2009 Watchmen movie did sent Warner Bros scurrying back to the safety of PG-13 after it failed to make the hoped-for profits.
Marvel has previously flirted with darker themes, especially with the Infinity Saga. The ending to Avengers: Infinity War still remains pretty shocking even if it was lessened by the fact that we knew most characters would return for future films. Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy films have always had a darker edge to them, but they, like most of Marvel’s films, have always prioritised jokes over violence. It’s worked pretty well, until recently.
But still, James Mangold’s excellent R-rated Wolverine send-off Logan has become almost universally beloved, and one of the reasons for that was because it felt like an authentic portrayal of its title character. It was grittier in nature and more devastating in its themes. The characters never felt expendable, but they were constantly in real danger and it wasn’t obvious the good guys were going to win. Its quality was rewarded with strong box office.
Not all R-rated superhero films have done well, though. Todd Phillips’ Joker was a major success, grossing over $1bn at the global box office and winning two Oscars, including one for Joaquin Phoenix for his haunted performance as Arthur Fleck. Its sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, did nowhere near that well, however, and Warner Bros sent it to digital only three weeks after its cinema release. In the aftermath, one of its actors described the sequel as “the worst film ever made”. Ouch. But also, imagine working with someone who’s saying that while the film is being made.
Tastes change and audiences change. Perhaps today’s audiences want different things from their superhero movies and shows. DC Studios is just getting (re)started, so Gunn’s plan to make lots of R-rated films might backfire, might not. This December’s Kraven The Hunter could also show if there’s a real appetite for gritty, violent superhero (or supervillain) films. Kevin Feige once promised that Blade, Marvel’s long-delayed and troubled vampire film starring Mahershala Ali, would likely be R-rated, but whether we ever see it is still up in the air.
If Marvel wants to stay on top of its game, then it might have to follow in DC’s footsteps. The numbers for Deadpool & Wolverine suggest it might.
