When it was introduced that Warner Bros. can be altering “Eyes Broad Shut” to realize an R ranking, many critics got here out to criticize the Movement Image Affiliation’s unique NC-17 determination. Each New York- and Los Angeles-based critics demeaned the board for not permitting Stanley Kubrick’s last movie to be seen in its meant kind over one thing so simple as human sexuality.
Terry Semel, then co-chairman of Warner Bros., defended the choice to change the movie, saying, “We’re not within the NC-17 enterprise. When one appears at ‘Eyes Broad Shut’ maybe there was not an enormous distinction between what can be an R, what can be an NC-17” (through The New York Occasions). Semel continued by saying that NC-17 movies embody pornographic footage, one thing that Warner Bros. is not keen on releasing. In Semel’s protection, Kubrick was contractually obligated to ship an R-rated image, however seeing as Kubrick was — properly — Kubrick, it is tough to know what the director would have carried out if he was alive.
Filmmakers have at all times made adjustments to their movies to appease the MPA and studios — Quentin Tarantino notably needed to lower a scene from “Pulp Fiction” to keep away from an NC-17 ranking. Financially, R-rated footage are much more marketable and culturally palatable than NC-17 movies, that are largely thought-about obscure (some theaters do not even display screen them, contemplating them a dying sentence). Check out the highest-grossing NC-17 movies on the field workplace, and it is clear that their monetary hauls merely do not match R-rated movies. With an R ranking, “Eyes Broad Shut” would go on to develop into a gentle hit, making $162 million worldwide.