R-rated movies have never found it easy to make big bucks at the box office — but that doesn't mean it can't be done. From passion projects to the latest Hollywood tentpoles, these are the highest-grossing R-rated movies of all time.
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00:00R-rated movies have never found it easy to make big bucks at the box office.
00:04But that doesn't mean it can't be done.
00:06From passion projects to the latest Hollywood tentpoles, these are the highest-grossing
00:10R-rated movies of all time at the worldwide box office, according to data site Box Office
00:16Mojo.
00:18Dropping at the end of June 2012, Seth MacFarlane's directorial debut Ted was a massive sleeper
00:23hit that grossed $549.3 million worldwide.
00:27In fact, Ted was the biggest R-rated non-sequel comedy released up to that point in time.
00:32"'Cause how can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat, right?
00:36That's the Pink Floyd thing."
00:38This was a particularly impressive feat, given how American comedies sometimes have a difficult
00:43time resonating with audiences in foreign countries.
00:46It's easy for certain costumes, jokes, or references to American culture to get lost
00:51in translation.
00:52With Ted, though, that wasn't a problem, as the sight of a raunchy yet cuddly teddy bear
00:57getting up to hijinks appeared to transcend language barriers.
01:00It helped that the film was redubbed for certain countries, a feat that could be achieved more
01:04easily thanks to Ted being a CG creation.
01:07As a result, Ted ended up flourishing in countries like Russia and Japan, where American comedies
01:12usually struggle, helping it score a killing at the global box office.
01:16The Chinese box office has witnessed a meteoric rise over the last decade, to the point that
01:21in 2020, it handily overtook America as the biggest movie marketplace in the world.
01:26An early sign that China was becoming a box office force to be reckoned with came with
01:302016's The Mermaid.
01:32Directed by Steven Chao, the film was already looking like a box office hit, thanks to savvy
01:37marketing, the decision to unleash the feature one day after Chinese New Year, and the box
01:42office track record of previous Chao features.
01:44Nevertheless, The Mermaid obliterated all expectations during its box office run, which
01:49saw it cracking $150 million in China after just four days of release.
01:55This made it clear that The Mermaid would be a massive hit, but even at that point,
01:59nobody could conceive of just how big it would become.
02:02Eventually, the movie became the first to gross over $500 million in China alone, surpassing
02:08Monster Hunt to become the biggest movie ever at the Chinese box office.
02:12There was once a time when Hollywood not only regularly made steamy, erotic thrillers, but
02:17when audiences showed up to them in droves.
02:20Basic Instinct made $352.7 million in the early 1990s, while Fatal Attraction had earned
02:27$320 million before that.
02:29Of course, nobody can reign supreme forever, and a number of subsequent flops led Hollywood
02:34to largely abandon the genre by the late 1990s.
02:37So, fans of steamy, melodramatic cinema were no doubt overjoyed when the erotic thriller
02:42made a major comeback in 2015, thanks to the release of Fifty Shades of Grey.
02:47"...let me touch you.
02:50Let me."
02:51The movie made $569.6 million worldwide.
02:55An outstanding box office haul made even more impressive, given that, unlike many of its
03:00predecessors, Fifty Shades didn't have any particularly big-name stars attached.
03:05The film got by on the brand name of its source material, a lot of hot and heavy action, and
03:10the fact that sex always seems to draw a crowd.
03:13The Hangover was a rare breed of blockbuster, the truly rewatchable original comedy movie
03:18featuring lead actors who weren't big stars at the time of its release.
03:21Despite that, audiences flocked to the movie, turning it into a worldwide sensation that
03:26completely upended the norm for what R-rated comedies could do at the 21st century box
03:31office.
03:32Given that level of popularity, it should be no surprise that The Hangover Part II was
03:36an even bigger hit than the original.
03:38The Hangover Part II didn't quite enjoy the longevity of its predecessor, but it still
03:42burned bright in theaters with a massive worldwide gross of $586.7 million.
03:48Opening the next Hangover just two years after the initial movie, and over the Memorial Day
03:53holiday weekend to boot, turned out to be a savvy move for the raunchy follow-up.
03:58Part II was also banking on audiences loving that first movie so much, and this turned
04:02out to be more than enough to make the movie a gigantic blockbuster.
04:06There was a time when it looked like The Passion of the Christ would end up being the next
04:10ill-fated Passion project from a famous actor.
04:13You know, a real waterworld kind of situation.
04:15The fact that it was being distributed independently, along with director Mel Gibson's streak of
04:20controversial behavior at the beginning of the 2000s, seemed to spell doom for the production
04:25even before its release.
04:27But The Passion didn't just become profitable.
04:29It became a box office juggernaut, one that took in $612 million worldwide.
04:35This included a gargantuan $371 million domestic haul, which made it the biggest R-rated domestic
04:41release of all time — until it was usurped by this guy.
04:45"...I am Marvel Jesus."
04:49The Passion of the Christ benefited from outreach to Christian groups as well as a perfect release
04:54date that allowed it to play throughout the spring.
04:56The movie's excessive violence and controversial nature also made it a conversation piece that
05:01people had to see in order to discuss.
05:04As a result, this likely flop turned into a holy hit.
05:08The first Deadpool movie changed the Hollywood consensus in 2016, as it became clear that
05:13R-rated comic book movies could make as much money as their PG-13 counterparts.
05:17Hoping to continue that trend was Logan, the third solo Wolverine movie and the first time
05:22the character would star in an R-rated movie.
05:24It was a bold gamble for a number of reasons.
05:27For one thing, Logan lacked the kind of large-scale set pieces that define most comic book movies.
05:32For another, Wolverine's solo outings hadn't exactly set the box office on fire, with The
05:37Wolverine becoming the lowest-grossing X-Men movie domestically until Dark Phoenix rolled
05:41around.
05:42Despite these issues, Logan ended up becoming nothing short of a smash hit.
05:46During its theatrical run, the movie grossed $619.1 million worldwide, putting it ahead
05:52of all the other non-Deadpool X-movies except Days of Future Past.
05:56Taking a bold swing with Wolverine in a gloomy, quasi-Western may have seemed like it could
06:01alienate audiences, but thanks to stellar early reviews and the fact that it was supposed
06:05to be Hugh Jackman's last run as a character, Logan did gangbusters at the blockbuster marketplace.
06:11Sadly, the glory days of China's box office appear to have fallen by the wayside.
06:16The country still produces one or two blockbusters each year that can stand toe-to-toe with the
06:20biggest American movies in raw box office grosses.
06:23However, the days of movies such as Wolf Warrior 2 or The Battle at Lake Chang'en taking in
06:28over $800 million in China alone appear to be long gone.
06:32One of the last beneficiaries of China's massive box office wave was Detective Chinatown 3.
06:37Despite being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Detective Chinatown 3 grossed a massive $686.2
06:44million, almost exclusively from its home country.
06:48What went right?
06:49Well, the passionate Chinese moviegoing public certainly helped, as well as a heap of residual
06:53goodwill from the previous Detective Chinatown installment.
06:56This was enough to make Detective Chinatown 3 the eighth-biggest R-rated release at the
07:01global box office.
07:03Horror movies aren't designed to be box office juggernauts, as they're usually cheap enough
07:06to make a profit without needing to hit $400 million worldwide.
07:10However, in recent years, horror films have begun to hit new box office highs, and nowhere
07:15was this more apparent than with It Chapter One.
07:18Time to float!
07:19The movie's astonishing $704.2 million worldwide gross occurred mostly thanks to its beloved
07:25source material.
07:26It is one of Stephen King's most famous books, but aside from a two-part TV movie starring
07:31Tim Curry, it has never been given a proper feet-to-length adaptation.
07:35Decades of anticipation fueled the movie's box office performance, as audiences showed
07:40up to finally see what a big-budget version of this story would look like.
07:44By the time it left theaters, it had become only the third R-rated feature to crack $700
07:49million worldwide, an astonishing feat for a horror flick.
07:53The Matrix Reloaded enjoyed an impressive box office run, but it wasn't exactly a surprise.
07:58The original Matrix had been a pop culture phenomenon, easily one of the best sci-fi
08:02movies ever.
08:03It's helped to reshape the blockbuster landscape back in 1999.
08:07People were eagerly awaiting a follow-up, and it was no shock to see that sequel making
08:11a killing at the worldwide box office.
08:13Still, few people would have guessed just how big Reloaded turned out to be.
08:18At $741.8 million worldwide, Reloaded surpassed the original Matrix and became, at the time,
08:25the highest-grossing R-rated movie in history.
08:28What made it an especially impressive haul was the fact that Reloaded also outgrossed
08:32all but one other live-action title at the worldwide box office in 2003.
08:36The promise of more Matrix adventures was always going to be a surefire recipe for box
08:40office success, but a memorable marketing campaign and positive advance buzz ensured
08:45that The Matrix Reloaded had more to lean on than its predecessor's reputation.
08:50For a long time, it seemed like a Deadpool movie was destined to remain a mere hypothetical
08:54— something Ryan Reynolds would always get asked about in interviews without ever actually
08:58getting made.
08:59It took a positive reaction to some leaked test footage for 20th Century Fox to finally
09:04give the film the green light.
09:05Given the eventual success of Deadpool, the studio's reluctance to make the movie now
09:09feels staggeringly short-sighted.
09:12At the time, though, R-rated superhero films were persona non grata in Hollywood, and the
09:16X-Men movies hadn't been able to launch any truly successful spinoff titles.
09:20But Deadpool overcame the odds thanks to an ingenious, pervasive marketing campaign that
09:25deftly conveyed the movie's uniquely irreverent attitude.
09:28The result was a movie that blew away all previous X-Men movies at the box office, with
09:35a gargantuan $782.6 million worldwide box office gross.
09:42Comedy sequels tend to have a history of making significantly less money than their predecessors,
09:46but it seems there was no need to worry that Deadpool 2 would fall prey to the same trend.
09:50Despite opening directly in the wake of the record-breaking Avengers Infinity War, Deadpool
09:552 still took in a sizable box office haul.
09:57With an eventual Chinese release of the film's PG-13 cut bringing its lifetime box office
10:02gross to $785.8 million, Deadpool 2 managed to avoid becoming the next Wayne's World 2
10:09by, among other means, emphasizing new characters such as Cable and Domino in its marketing.
10:14As a result, audiences were reassured they'd receive something with Deadpool 2 that they
10:18wouldn't get by simply re-watching the original.
10:21Oppenheimer became a worldwide phenomenon the moment it touched down in theaters.
10:25Concerns about J. Robert Oppenheimer's story only having appeal for North American moviegoers
10:30quickly vanished as the movie racked up an astonishing $975.4 million worldwide gross,
10:37including $645.5 million overseas.
10:41For comparison's sake, Inception, a previous Christopher Nolan movie, had made $839 million
10:47worldwide 13 years earlier, and that one had both big action sequences and Leonardo DiCaprio
10:53to bolster its appeal.
10:54Many factors made Oppenheimer a central moviegoing for audiences worldwide.
10:58However, nothing helped more than the film being such a huge hit with audiences and critics
11:03alike.
11:04Perhaps Oppenheimer should have been a box office loser, but those reviews and early
11:07word of mouth turned it into a game-changer for R-rated global blockbusters.
11:11Oh, and the whole Barbenheimer thing probably didn't hurt either.
11:16"'Murray, one small thing.
11:18Yeah.
11:19When you bring me out, can you introduce me as Joker?"
11:23There's no other way to describe Joker's $1.08 billion worldwide box office other than staggeringly
11:29impressive.
11:30For one thing, the film was massively profitable, considering it cost only $55 million to make.
11:36For another, Joker became the first R-rated movie in history to crack $1 billion at the
11:41worldwide box office.
11:43It also outgrossed nearly every other Batman movie, as well as practically every 2019 tentpole
11:48release, from Toy Story 4 to Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker.
11:52So how did it pull this off?
11:54Not only is the Joker a beloved comic book character, but the trailers and posters for
11:58the movie immediately captured the eye.
12:00The fact that it was all anyone could talk about in the fall of 2019 made it the kind
12:04of water-cooler movie you just had to see.
12:06All these qualities yielded a box office trailblazer that struck a chord with moviegoers around
12:11the globe.
12:13It was always expected that Deadpool and Wolverine would continue the hit box office streak of
12:17its predecessors, especially since it was the first movie in the franchise to take place
12:21within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
12:23The movie certainly stood a chance of performing better than those first two Deadpool movies,
12:28but who ever thought it would go this far?
12:30Let's give the people what they came for!
12:32Worldwide, Deadpool and Wolverine has grossed over $1.150 billion to date.
12:37That haul handily outpaced Joker to make it the biggest R-rated feature globally and only
12:42the second to exceed $1 billion.
12:44The movie surpassed worldwide grosses of PG-13 MCU fare, such as Captain Marvel and Spider-Man
12:50Far From Home, while also beating the global hauls of the two previous Deadpool movies
12:54by a significant margin.
12:56Once again, it seems the merc with a mouth is a champion of R-rated cinema.