Future of R-rated Films in Hollywood

San Francisco Chronicle published an article that claims that the commercial triumph of Matrix Reloaded means the new era of R-rated films. I wish this was the case, because Hollywood blockbusters today look cleaner, more puritanical and sterile than they used to be some twenty years ago. You would have to look a plenty of Hollywood films to find more than one four-letter word, a drop of blood or, God forbid, woman's nipple. But success of Matrix Reloaded hardly means that you would see such "problematic" contents in Hollywood films any time soon. According to the article:

Also, "Reloaded" is a tame for an R film. The sex is hardly overt, and despite huge explosions and constant gunfire, barely a drop of blood is spilled. Although the martial arts battles go on and on, combatants are likely to finish and -- like Agent Smith -- straighten their tie, roll their shoulders and walk away, apparently unscathed.

"I've seen PG-13 films that could have been R," Dergarabedian says. "This isn't 'Real Cancun.' This could easily have been PG-13."
I
n fact, it doesn't appear that there was much of an effort to earn a PG-13 rating.

"The R rating may have given it the aura of an edge," Dergarabedian says. "It may have made it cool for the teens."

This just proves the point I have made in recent movie-related discussion in SHWI. Today's R-rated movies have the content equivalent to PG-rated films of two decades ago. And if current trends continue, Hollywood blockbusters in twenty years, regardless whether they are rated PG, PG-13, R or NC-17, would resemble 1950s network television.