After the success of Deadpool and Logan, the hot trend among licensed movies these days seems to be coming up with a way to make an existing property edgy and violent enough to earn an R-rating. Not every property warrants that, though, and Power Rangers director Dean Israelite thinks his movie was actually hurt by the perception that it might have been edgy and violent. The movie got a PG-13 and not an R, but he still thinks it would’ve been more successful if it had been rated PG instead.
That comes from an interview with Screen Rant, during which Israelite said that “there would have been more traffic” for Power Rangers if parents hadn’t been “unsure if they could bring their kids to the movie.” He says it’s a “tame” PG-13, and though young kids would get scared in preview screenings, he said it was “in a good way.” Elizabeth Banks’ Rita Repulsa frightened some kids, he adds, “but they still came out of the movie enjoying it” and “they liked what was going on.” Israelite hopes that the movie will do better on DVD, where parents have a chance to check it out before letting their kids see it, but that still might not be enough to save the five sequels that Power Rangers producer Haim Saban wanted to make.
[Note: Power Rangers producer Haim Saban is also the chairman of Saban Capital Group, which is a part owner of Univision Communications, the parent company of Fusion Media Group, which owns The A.V. Club.]