Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 12:06PM Unrated 'Hatchet 2' Pulled from AMC Theaters
Back in September, AMC Theaters announced that they would be showing Hatchet II in more than 60 theaters, even without a rating from the MPAA.
While a bold move for any theater chain, apparently something happened on AMC's side of the deal, and the unrated movie was pulled after only one weekend in release.
Director Adam Green had previously went to the MPAA to get his movie rated. It earned an NC-17, which would have killed it's theater run before it began. Instead, distributor Dark Sky Films decided to forgo the rating and try for the impossible. However, the film earned roughly $70,000 over the weekend, so it probably didn't have much of a theatrical run in it.
So what happened? Either AMC got nervous about showing an unrated movie and pulled it, the MPAA threatened to fine them, or the film was such a hassle to deal with (i.e., checking IDs and ticket stubs for the movie, complaints). I'd like to thnk it was a business decision on AMC's part, and not the "evil" MPAA flexing it's muscle. In many cases, a movie has to really try to get that NC-17 rating, which ends up taking away from the film's quality. If there were good unrated or NC-17 movies to be seen, I think theaters would show them, instead of a straight-to-DVD release. Besides, if the MPAA wanted to interfere with it's release, it probably would have done so before it was released.
Josh Baldwin | Permalink | in Horror Movies, MPAA, News | Print Article | 3 Comments | Share Article 
Reader Comments (3)
I feel that AMC used the film's extremely poor showing this weekend ($774 per-screen average...ouch!) as a way out in order to not deal with the whole "unrated" thing.
Either way, this movie's theatrical release is over by the time it even started, so just wait for the DVD in a few months, people.
I'm not sure how the MPAA could fine anyone for exhibiting an unrated film, since movies don't have to be submitted to that organization in the first place. Securing a rating is purely voluntary. More than likely, it's because the movie isn't making money.
The whole MPAA "fining" AMC is merely rumor out on the 'net. There's a lot of publicity going on about this, and I'm starting to think that people are using this film to attack the MPAA.
Either way, it will be on DVD soon, and make some money from the people that bought the first Hatchet.