Since X-Men first came out with a film in 2000, the series has been a mainstay among those who routinely watch superhero movies. Hugh Jackman has a more specific audience, apparently.
Jackman’s latest work dealing with X-Men is Logan (click here for our reaction to the trailer), and to make sure the film got an R-Rating, the Australian actor even took a paycut:
Following a screening of footage from Logan at this year’s Butt-Numb-A-Thon film marathon, Mangold told attendees that Jackman took a salary cut on the movie in order to ensure it would be R-rated, as reported by Ain’t it Cool’s Eric Vespe. Typically, R-rated films don’t perform as well at the box office as those rated PG-13 (or under), so Jackman’s paycut likely helped Fox justify the R rating for Logan from a financial perspective.
This is definitely something I’ve never heard of. It does allow those involved with the movie to take a different tone, but is still pretty weird. Thankfully, ScreenRant is here to give us some more context.
That said, reports of Logan potentially being rated R arose shortly after the theatrical release of Deadpool, an R-rated spinoff from the X-Men universe that broke box office records for both R-rated movies and X-Men cinematic universe installments. Considering Deadpool’s financial success in spite of its rating — it’s currently the fifth highest grossing film of 2016, and the only R-rated movie in the top 10 — it seems likely Fox will be able to find success with another R-rated X-Men universe film, especially since Logan stars the cinematic world’s most beloved superhero.
Jackman has led a number of X-Men universe films, including all three of the original trilogy, as well as appeared in the second installment of the prequel trilogy, X-Men: Days of Future Past. The actor is as much the face of the cinematic universe as Stewart — perhaps even moreso — and he has stated that Logan will be his last time donning the claws and mutton chops associated with Wolverine. As such, Logan will be an event film for fans of the X-Men universe who have followed Jackman’s take on Wolverine since 2000.
Still, R-rated comic book movies are a gamble for studios since they eliminate younger moviegoers from the potential audience pool. So, Logan being a smaller budgeted affair and Jackman taking the salary cut undoubtedly went a long way in allowing the actor and director to provide a unique — and R-rated — superhero movie. How that pays off for everyone involved remains to be seen, but early reactions to Logan may indicate another success along the lines of Deadpool.
So, those of you above the age of 17 should be just thrilled with the opportunity to see this movie. Who knows? Jackman’s next film might be NC-17?
