Dawn ,'Beneath You'
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Hmm. That raises a question. Which is the most popular NC-17 movie? And not over time, but in the initial release. And how does one phrase that google search?
I feel like Box Office Mojo should just volunteer this information to me and save me the effort.
Well, 9 1/2 Weeks was all about sex, and pretty graphic for its time.
There's also a lot you can do with the sort of doorway scene - - you show one of them tied up, or one of them with a whip in hand, and then you cut away and leave the rest to imagination.
It's not initial release, but I'm getting Showgirls ($20 million lifetime) and then Henry and June ($11.5 million) by a pretty wide margin.
Showgirls was also probably the highest grossing in the theatres of the ones ranked, since it's the least "art house" of them, and it's American. But, damn, I was imagining Secretary as a parallel in more ways than one, but that only grossed about five mil.
Looking at R rated movies, most of them are rated based on violence, not sex. Hangover is...crudity, not sensuality, and that has a massive lifetime of $277M. Hangover II at $254M. Wedding Crashers at $209. Pretty Woman is the first "chick sex" movie at $178M, and that's probably quite a bit of legacy money, and also not a lot of actual sex in the flick, that I can remember, just the scandalous idea that she's a prostitute--can someone set me right on what I'm forgetting? I don't like the movie much, so I'm even more likely to get it wrong. Bouncing down a few more spaces and you get Bridesmaids at #17 lifetime with $169M.
I guess it would feel like a tease to a lot of people for the mommy porn movie to skimp on actual content.
There's some sexy lead-up stuff in Pretty Woman, and one scene where she's clearing about to give him a blow job, but not much that's actually shown. Even the one time they're fucking it's under the covers.
I'm stumped on a couple of these. Nice work on the poster, though.
Are you including X along with NC-17?
Deep Throat made a lot of money. But how much isn't clear because of mob shenanigans. The FBI estimated $100 million.
Midnight Cowboy made $44 million in 1969. Which would be about $275 million in adjusted dollars.
Last Tango in Paris (1973): $36 million.
Clockwork Orange (1972): $26 million
What about Caligula, out of curiosity?
I think Amy was going by the Box Office Mojo numbers here: [link] They're only broken down by MPAA. Wikipedia says that NC-17 was introduced in 1990, and their list of NC-17 grossers includes Matador from 1998, so I dunno what's up with that. But that's the earliest film on their list.
NC-17 is seen to be some sort of kiss of death in a way that I don't think Midnight Cowboy or Clockwork Orange was blest with--but my ages at seeing those movies makes it confusing. Was X so very scandalous as NC-17 is supposed to be now? And is NC-17 living up to its hype? I just watched that movie, and I don't even remember the deets.
I think X is still considered more scandalous than NC17, but I also think it's not really about the morality of any it, but the fact that one of the biggest movie-going audiences is too young to see it. If America suddenly decided that its kids really should be watching porn, Hollywood would jump right on the bandwagon.