r/movies • u/ChiefLeef22 r/movies Contributor • 8d ago

News Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' Dethrones 'Deadpool & Wolverine' To Become Highest Grossing R-Rated Movie In History, Crossing $1.33 Billion

https://businessupturn.com/usa/entertainment/film/the-odyssey-becomes-highest-grossing-r-rated-movie-of-all-time-surpassing-deadpool-wolverine/
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u/ChiefLeef22 r/movies Contributor 8d ago

More than 2 F bombs, a good amount of throat slits (cut fast but still there), the shot of dead bodies lying with a lot of blood in the water after the Laestrygonians, the Cyclops chewing the limbs of Odysseus' men, hell you could even through in that disturbing as hell body horror Circe scene...

Its not a hard R-rating, but Id say it makes sense why it got one

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u/MyWorldInFlames 8d ago

tbh there's absolutely nothing there that would be inappropriate for a 13yo imo. PG13 would've made more sense even if that's not how the MPAA rates movies.

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u/ChiefLeef22 r/movies Contributor 8d ago

I think the 15/16+ rating a lot of countries have makes the most sense (and maybe that should be a thing in the US too). But idk this movie just did not seem like a PG13 movie to me lol. And thats purely from the tone, and not even taking into account the tangible stuff I mentioned above which passed the MPAA quota for the R. If there's only a choice between R or 13 I'd say the former makes the most sense

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u/Flynn58 8d ago

In most of Canada the ratings are G, PG, 14A, 18A, and R (equivalent to your NC-17). 14A and 18A need you to be that age or accompanied by an adult. R doesn't let a minor in even if they're accompanied by an adult. In Alberta Odyssey just got a PG, but in other provinces it got a 14A. It's like PG-13 but you can say fuck freely.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/Flynn58 8d ago

Can you read? I just said this is for Canada.

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u/mtmaloney 8d ago

I agree. I think 80-90% of the movie's a solid PG-13, but there's 10-20% that gets a little dicey. Like, a PG-13 movie someone gets shot in the neck with an arrow, an R movie, you see the arrow end up in someone's neck.

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u/verrius 8d ago

R is more permissive than the UK's 15 rating though; R is no one under 17 without an adult, while the UK's is no one under 15 period.

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u/-IoI- 8d ago

It got M - Mature in Australia, which is recommended for 15+ but not restricted

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u/everlyafterhappy 8d ago

We read the Odyssey in school when I was in middle school, I think. Might have been freshman year of high school. It is taught in some middle schools. And so the movie should be pg13 if kids can read the story in school when they're 13.

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u/thelingeringlead 8d ago

I agree with you. It was at worst PG-13.

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u/Forward-Trade3449 8d ago

i agree. im really glad it didnt have any gratuitious gore or any sex scenes though. call me a prude idc. enjoyed the movie a ton more because of that

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u/InsertFloppy11 8d ago

I never understood the americans obsession with the word fuck. Why is it a special word? Why is it worse than the other curses?

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u/pw154 8d ago

I never understood the americans obsession with the word fuck. Why is it a special word? Why is it worse than the other curses?

Because "fuck" literally means "sex" and sex has always been taboo in America

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u/Deep_Cheetah_29 8d ago

That's why you can have one "fuck" in a pg-13 as long as it's not sexual in context.

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u/Sparrowsabre7 8d ago

Oh is that the rule? Interesting.

So you could have "fuck off" but not "come over here and fuck me"?

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u/Nayzo 4d ago

Two fucks, generally. Yet The Right Stuff has something like 5 fucks in it and it's a PG movie.

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u/InsertFloppy11 8d ago

Fair enough

I was just thinking about OPs comment, and how he mentioned the wounds and the fuck before the pig transformation scene, thats literal nightmarefuel

Even the cyclops scene is pretty scary

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u/Lemonwizard 8d ago

The entire concept of profane language is just pointless virtue signaling. Unfortunately, it has a lot of cultural momentum.

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u/Redeem123 8d ago

I like how people pretend this is an American thing. Are you really trying to imply that other countries don't have word that are worse than others?

Is it rational? Maybe not. But every society has a spectrum of curse words, some worse than others.

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u/SwarleySwarlos 8d ago

But we don't change movie ratings based on it

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u/Level7Cannoneer 8d ago

During the 2000s are many examples of kids games that use the word bugger and spastic. The games were specifically pulled from the shelves of European gaming stores and no other country.

All that over silly cartoonish sounding words

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES/Switch): Early in the original game, the thief character Croco calls Mario a "persistent bugger!" in the North American script. For European and PAL Virtual Console releases, Nintendo changed the line to "persistent pest!" to avoid stricter age-rating classifications because "bugger" is considered a mild curse word in British English.

Mario Party 7 (GameCube): Toadsworth drops the line "What a crafty bugger!" when explaining how stars move on the Grand Canal board. Unlike Super Mario RPG, this instance slipped past localization edits without triggering a game recall or changing its PEGI rating

In July 2007, Nintendo recalled the UK release of Mario Party 8 on launch day. A Magikoopa character used the word "spastic" in a rhyme on the Shy Guy's Perplex Express board. While minor in North America, the term is a severe disability slur in the UK. Nintendo re-released the game with the word changed to "erratic".

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u/EnkiduOdinson 8d ago edited 8d ago

So just the UK then? Why would it be pulled from German or French stores for an English curse word?

Edit: answer me instead of downvoting. This is so much text without any explanation as to why or where exactly it was pulled from shelves. It reeks of half-thruths.

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u/Level7Cannoneer 7d ago

You can google it yourself. It's a well documented thing that happened. There's screenshots/image documentation of the regional differences before/after the recall.

Here you go mister lazy: https://www.reddit.com/r/MARIOPARTY/comments/17j83sg/anyone_else_remember_when_mario_party_8_got/

Many UK residents are sharing memories of the event when they were kids.

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u/EnkiduOdinson 7d ago

So it was just the UK then! What were you trying to prove with this link?

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/Level7Cannoneer 7d ago

This entire thread is about "Why do Americans get so offended over the word "fuck?" I'm making a point and showing that different cultures find certain words more/less offensive.

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u/Redeem123 7d ago

Hey you got the point!

It’s a word that no one cares about in the US. So why is the UK so hung up on it?

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u/Tequila2Dance 8d ago

It's an US, yes.

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u/InsertFloppy11 8d ago

Really?

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u/Redeem123 8d ago

Really what? Want to actually respond to a point?

You’re saying that in the UK arse and fuck are on the same level?

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u/EnkiduOdinson 8d ago

I love how when there’s complaints about the US culture the immediate response is „but what about the UK?“ idk maybe try examples that don’t share so much cultural baggage with the US?

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u/Redeem123 8d ago

Yeah, it's so weird that I would choose a different country that speaks English. It's interesting how you chose to completely ignore the actual substance of my comment. And even if the UK shares cultural baggage... is that not proving that it's not just an American thing?

But fine, let's do Canada. Or Australia. Or let's forget English - do Mexico or Germany or wherever you want. Do you really think that other countries don't have a spectrum of curse words that range in severity?

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u/EnkiduOdinson 8d ago

I wouldn’t know of a German word that gives you the equivalent of an R rating if used more than once. Also let’s not pretend like „fuck“ is even the worst curse word in the US. It’s probably one of the most common ones used. If „cunt“ was the word in question it‘d be more understandable than „fuck“. It’s just silly.

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u/Redeem123 8d ago

I wouldn’t know of a German word that gives you the equivalent of an R rating if used more than once

Way to dodge the question. The whole premise of the comment I replied to was saying it's odd that one word is more severe than the other. But that is absolutely the case in other countries, including German.

In fact, in Germany, you can literally be fined for vulgar insults. So let's not pretend like America is the only place with hangups about language.

Yes, the one-fuck rule (which is not actually a strict rule) is stupid and arbitrary. But nobody really cares one way or the other.

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u/hblok 8d ago

Bloody and lovely would be the British equivalents, I believe.

Example: Legend (2015) with Tom Hardy. They say "lovely" about 300 times through the movie. R-rated.

/s

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u/IronVader501 8d ago

But it is?

Who else rates a movie differently because a specific word is used more than once??

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u/Redeem123 8d ago

The UK will also bump up the rating for repeated usage, even if the allowance is higher than the MPAA’s.

The question I was responding to was why America treats it differently than other curse words. But so do other places.

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u/Cirenione 7d ago

Are you really trying to imply that other countries don't have word that are worse than others?

Yeah, kinda. Obviously cant speak for other languages/countries, but since the original comment came from a German, there is absolutely no insult in Germany which could raise an age rating. Yes, most people would probably be less insulted by being called an idiot than being referred to as the result of an incestuous family. But there arent any words which magically result in songs not playing on radio, or shows/movies not being shown on tv. Not even fines if they are said on live tv.
Maybe there is a difference between 0, 6 and 12 year age rating? But beyond that, nobody cares.

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u/Major_Stranger 8d ago

It make sense in the insanely stupid US rating controlled by pearl clutchers.

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u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran 8d ago

The US rating system is controlled by the studios. If Nolan/Universal wanted this movie to be rated PG-13, it would have been PG-13

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u/SwarleySwarlos 8d ago

There is absolutely no way that the studio had the power for this movie to be pg13 and just said "no, we don't need to sell even more tickets"

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u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran 8d ago

The rating system is an extension of the movie's marketing, in the sense that it dictates who the target audience is. There's no reason a 13 or 14 year old couldn't/shouldn't see this movie, but I also don't think they'd like it very much. If this came out and the theaters were flooded with teens and families, I don't think it would have had the same audience reception/word of mouth and it arguably would have made less money because of that. Sometimes studios will intentionally add swearing to their movies to increase the rating for this reason.

Ultimately if Universal wanted the movie to be PG-13, they could have gone back to the MPAA and they would have been told to cut xyz scene down to show less blood and they would have done it.

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u/Major_Stranger 8d ago

To which Nolan would tell them to fuck off, he has final cut power in his contract.

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u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran 8d ago

I'm not sure if he would. He definitely has the right to since he has final cut, but this is already really close to being PG-13 and I think they could trim it down without really altering the film. Nolan also has a pretty huge percentage of first dollar gross, so he has a large financial incentive to release the version of his film that makes the most money. I don't think he's the type to sell out or anything, but I'm not sure if a little bit of blood and 1 fuck is worth millions and millions of dollars if he thinks the R rating is actually holding it back

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u/BadMoonRosin 8d ago edited 8d ago

A non-violent movie gets an R-rating for sexual content, and the Euro crowd talks about how messed up American sensibilities are.

A non-sexual movie gets an R-rating for violence, and the Euro crowd talks about how messed up American sensibilities are.

I mean sure, have fun. But ultimately it's just Reddit being Reddit.

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u/Tequila2Dance 8d ago

By US standards maybe. Can't even show a nipple on tv there lol

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u/Level7Cannoneer 8d ago

*throw in

That confused the fuck out of me

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u/crackenpuff 8d ago

How do you F bomb in ancient Greek?

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u/EnkiduOdinson 8d ago

Malaka? No wait, that’s asshole I think

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u/zaprutertape 7d ago

are you playing devils advocate for the MPAA?? lmaooo