Margot Robbie is promoting Terminal now and thus chimed in with updates about her “Harley Quinn and friends” DC Films flick that she is producing for Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. Along with implying that she has oodles of creative control over the project, which played a role in getting a female screenwriter (Christina Hodson) and a female director (Cathy Yan), she spoke to Collider and stated that the film will be “an R-rated girl gang movie.”
Now, to be fair, this may be an actor speaking about a theoretical idea for an unmade movie. But, strictly from a commercial standpoint, going R-rated for a Harley Quinn/Birds of Prey/etc. would be a mistake. This has little to do with any artistic qualms about making an R-rated DC Films movie, and I would never argue that such a play was motivated by the successes of Fox’s Deadpool and Logan.
But here’s the thing: A female-centric superhero/supervillain ensemble piece is liable to play huge with conventional comic fans and women/girls of all ages who like these characters. And going R-rated would obviously prevent younger fans of both genders from seeing the picture in theaters (sans a parent or guardian). And that, fair or not, would make the film less special both as a “glass ceiling-breaking” picture and merely as a thing unto itself.
There are already lots of R-rated female-led action fantasies out there. Back when Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman was released, I made a point that one of the reasons it would probably do well is that it was (along with Walt Disney’s most recent Star Wars movies) somewhat rare in the realm of female-led action movies that kids could see in theaters. As a rule, most of the female-led action flicks we get are either hard-R fantasies like Resident Evil or Underworld or grim R (or ultraviolent PG-13) actioners like Lucy, Atomic Blonde, Salt, The Hunger Games and Red Sparrow. A PG-13 female-led action adventure movie like Tomb Raider is about as rare in 2018 as it was in 2001.
This applies to other genres. While there are female-led comedies with witty/well-written female protagonists, they tend to occupy R-rated farces like Girls Trip, Bad Moms, The Boss or Blockers. That’s part of what made the Pitch Perfect franchise such a big deal, as it was a relic of a time when young women had more mainstream female-led comedies (Clueless, Mean Girls, Bring It On, etc.) to choose from.
Yes, there is great value in comedies pitched at adult women, but there is also great value in younger women/girls being able to see female-led comedies with (pardon the cliché) strong, headstrong, complex female protagonists without playing in the R-rated sandbox. This isn’t about what’s best for the movie in an artistic sense, but strictly in commercial terms.
Quite simply, much of the female-led (and, frankly, minority-led) action movies and comedies tend to be pitched at older viewers or outright rated-R. That doesn’t make them bad (Atomic Blonde rocks and I’m the guy who liked Red Sparrow), but most of those films aren’t necessarily intended as counterprogramming to the deluge of manly PG-13 fantasy tentpoles that flood our multiplexes on a near-weekly basis. A PG-13 “Harley and Her Super Friends” movie would play both to longtime fans of the characters and younger fans, male and female.
And yes, it’s just as important than young boys see this kind of movie as par-for-the-course. I gave Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice some grief for giving us the first live-action big-screen Wonder Woman in an ultraviolent and grimy movie I didn’t feel comfortable watching with my kids. I would argue a similar concept would apply here. It may not be a moral consideration, but it darn well should be a commercial one.
Now, of course, this might just be one off-the-cuff comment being jump-covered accordingly. For that matter, if the movie doesn’t cost $150 million then an R-rated DC Films “girl gang” movie would still be a viable commercial proposition. But you’d be leaving lots of money on the table, if only because in this case a female-led big-budget action fantasy that you can see with your sons and daughters would be a more unique offering than yet another hardcore, R-rated female-led action flick.
It’s not an “Egad, the movie is doomed!” situation. but going R-rated for the first female-led superhero/supervillain ensemble flick would be a slight error. In short, an R-rated Harley Quinn flick would be an event movie for parents, while a PG-13 one would be an event film for parents and kids. And since a female-led action flick is more likely to be something like Atomic Blonde than Wonder Woman, that would make the DC Films ensemble flick that much more of a genuine event by virtue of its relative rarity.
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