Zack Snyder’s BVS Almost Got R Rating Because MPAA Said “We Just Don’t Like The Idea Of Batman Fighting Superman”

Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was nearly bestowed an R rating by the MPAA purely for the premise of the DCEU movie: the fight between Batman and Superman. Batmanv Superman: Dawn of Justice was the second movie to release in the now-defunct DCEU, and opened to mediocre reviews and a global box office that fell below expectations, despite earning over $870 million. It was a disappointing debut for Ben Affleck’s Batman and set the DCEU on a downward path it would struggle to recover from.

Snyder recently sat down for an interview with Joe Rogan, where he divulged that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was nearly slapped with an R rating for the titular event. According to Snyder, the ratings board pushed back against a PG-13 rating because they “just don’t like the idea of Batman fighting Superman.” The board kept giving the movie an R, and when Snyder asked what he should cut, they reiterated their uncertainty over the two heroes fighting. “I’m like, ‘I can’t take that out!’ That’s the movie!” Snyder recalls.

Why Batman V Superman Needed A PG-13 Rating

Although Todd Phillips’ R-rated Joker became a worldwide sensation and remains the highest-grossing R-rated movie in history with over $1 billion at the global box office, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice could not afford to take the risk. Joker was released in 2019, three years after Batman v Superman, while the R-rated Deadpool was released in the same year as the Snyder movie. Before then, there was no real precedence for the success of R-rated superhero movies, or at least not the kind of success that would have been required for the DCEU’s substantial budget.

Besides that, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice had little business being an R-rated movie. While Joker‘s titular character is inherently adjacent to many adult themes, Superman and Batman are both largely kid-friendly superheroes and undeniably popular among younger audiences. Preventing this audience from seeing the movie would have taken a huge chunk out of the already-suboptimal takings, and would have been tonally inconsistent. Additionally, restricting certain audiences from seeing Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice would have made keeping abreast of the wider DCEU narrative a lot more difficult.

Watch Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice on Max.