10 Films Intended To Be R-Rated That Got Neutered To PG-13

Ratings are a funny thing, that have changed drastically over time.

On the one hand, you've got the seventies, where a film like Jaws isn't harsh enough to earn anything more than a PG. On the other hand, you've got modern day cinema, in which a film can't use more than one F-word in its runtime, lest it be slapped with the R-rating from the MPAA.

And considering that an R-rating means that anyone under the age of seventeen will need an adult with them to purchase a ticket, a big-budget film getting an R-rating can be seriously detrimental to its box-office potential. Which means that sometimes, even if the film tells an adult story more befitting of an adult audience, studios will attempt to water it down to a lower rating in hopes of roping in younger audience members to boost its sales.

This has happened plenty of times over the years, but in recent years its become a particularly common thing to see, where a film is written and shot with the intention of attaining an R-rating, only for it to get cut to ribbons in post-production because the studio gets a bit nervous about money. These are the films that have been absolutely neutered, all because some studio exec wanted a few more dollars.

A monster mash-up in the vein of the classic Universal monster flicks of old, this sci-fi battle royale was set to pit the greatest hunter in the galaxy, the Yautja, against the most dangerous creature in the galaxy, the Xenomorph.

Considering the monsters' gory legacies and the fact that all of the previous films in each franchise had been rated R, it seemed an obvious choice that this film would also be given the same rating. And originally, that was the plan. Director Paul W. S. Anderson was a massive fan of each franchise and was particularly mesmerized by Ridley Scott's original Alien.

When comparing the film to the rest of Anderson's output, it's clear that the man was at least trying very hard to do the material justice. Gone are the lazy edits and haphazard camera movements of his Resident Evil films (mostly) and in are some very direct and intentional visual nods to the prior films of each franchise.

But when the film got to post-production, Fox got a bit nervous about their big-budget film's chances at the box office, partially due to the middling success of Alien: Ressurection. As a result, Anderson's film was cut down to PG-13, with several death scenes being cut around or edited much quicker than anticipated to avoid the dreaded R.