PG-13 VERSION OF KING’S SPEECH FAILS TO ATTRACT

Cleaning up the king’s speech in order to permit The Weinstein Co. to rerelease their R-rated film with a PG-13 rating instead did not pay off at the box office as the company had hoped. Today’s (Monday) Los Angeles Times observed that the recut version of The King’s Speech collected only $1.2 million in ticket sales versus $1.6 million a week ago. While some filmmakers have complained that the decision to recut the Oscar-winning film was misguided from an artistic viewpoint, others in the industry suggested that it was also misguided from a business perspective as well. They expressed doubts that, given the educational/historical nature of the movie, theater owners would have strictly enforced the R rating. The Times pointed out that the original version of the film, playing overseas with a less restrictive rating than it has in the U.S., has taken in nearly twice the amount of money abroad than it has domestically.