Movies

LOS ANGELES – In comedy, Hollywood has learned that raunch sells.

Studios prefer their funny flicks in the benign PG-13 mold, a rating that keeps the audience broad to fill as many seats as possible. More and more, however, they are taking chances on R-rated comedies that ratchet up the rawness, allowing the Sex and the City gal pals to strut their stuff, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly to expose body parts in Step Brothers, or Tom Cruise to swear like a sailor.

"He was willing to go for it," Tropic Thunder star and director Ben Stiller said of Mr. Cruise.

While Hollywood executives usually soft-pedal comedy, figuring the PG-13 rating offers the best return on their investment, racier hits such as Wedding Crashers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up prove there's a place for R-rated humor.

With $56.8 million over opening weekend in May, Sex and the City had the best debut ever for an R-rated comedy. The movie has racked up a total of $151 million, ranking among the top-50 highest-grossing comedies ever.

Close on that movie's high heels comes a rare late-summer surge of saltier fare, led by Mr. Ferrell and Mr. Reilly's Step Brothers, which delivered a solid $30.9 million opening weekend, big bucks for an R-rated romp.

Pineapple Express, with Seth Rogen and James Franco as stoners on the run, and Tropic Thunder, about pampered actors caught in real combat with drug-runners while shooting a Vietnam War picture, have great buzz from advance screenings, with prospects of joining the R-rated hit parade.

Both comedies are loaded with violence, coarse language and outrageous gags that couldn't have been in a PG-13 movie.

The wave of R-rated hits over the last few summers includes Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and Superbad.

The Associated Press

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