We ran a story a few days ago about Warner Bros. Pictures releasing Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy back into theaters in their extended form. This isn’t too wild a concept, since the same thing was done with the Lord Of The Rings trilogy before it. The surprise bit of news, however, is that the MPAA has given the last of the Hobbit films, The Battle Of The Five Armies, an R-rating. The film’s extended version apparently contains “some violence” that the MPAA has decided could not be overlooked in giving it a PG-13 rating, as both of the previous extended Hobbit films and all three extended Lord Of The Rings movies have gotten.

So, this then leads to speculation as to what kind of violence was too much for the Motion Picture Association of America to deem acceptable. Of course there are plenty of deaths in the film, and a giant battle like the film boasts of in its title would be an easy place to sneak in some wild and gruesome violence if one decided to. It surprises me that Peter Jackson, knowing what movie he was making and who Warner Bros. Pictures would deem as their target audience, would knowingly create something violent enough to catch the MPAA’s ire. There is no word as of yet if any appeal has been filed against the rating, or if this effects both the theatrical re-release and the home video release of the film.

Do you think an R-rating will actually hurt the extended release, or could it draw in a bigger crowd with the mystery of what this more intense violence could be? Let us know in the comments below.

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Featured Image – Entertainment Weekly

HT – Filmrating/JoBlo