10 Reasons The Dark Tower Bombed

7. The PG-13 Rating

The Dark Tower Idris Elba
Sony

Further to the point about the movie being made for the teenage market, The Dark Tower was rated PG-13, ensuring that the gritty, often incredibly dark, adult nature of the source material was almost entirely excised.

From the goofy adventure movie tone through to the action sequences, nothing has any real weight or feels especially consequential, and it's especially embarrassing as the film was shot with a totally sensible $60 million budget, which should certainly have been enough for Sony to take the risk of an R-rating.

Considering that a franchise as seemingly dead as Mad Max was resurrected with the R-rated $150 million Fury Road, that Sony were too scared to spend 40% of that cost on a Dark Tower movie that actually captured the essence of King's novels is just incredibly sad.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.