Power Rangers Director Suggests PG-13 Rating Led to Box Office Failure

CBR

By Anthony Couto

Published Jun 25, 2017

Dean Israelite says the PG-13 rating is to blame for his Power Rangers film's underperformance at the domestic and international box office.

In an age of sequels, prequels and even squeakquels, you'd think Lionsgate's Power Rangers reboot would be ensured at least one follow-up film, Unfortunately, because of poor box office returns, that likely won't be the case. The reimagining of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had a mere $85 million domestic lifetime gross, and $140.2 million worldwide total -- certainly not enough to warrant a sequel in the age of billion dollar hits. There could be many reasons for its underperformance at the box office, but according to director Dean Israelite, the film's PG-13 rating was chief among them.

Speaking to ScreenRant ahead of the film's release on home video and digital platforms, Israelite attributed the less-than-stellar box office results to the PG-13 rating, rationalizing that parents might have been deterred from taking their children to the generally kid-friendly film.

“...there’s been market studies on it, and the findings have been that if the movie were rated PG -- I don’t want to go into the specific numbers -- but if the movie had been rated PG, there would have been more traffic. I think parents were unsure if they could bring their kids to the movie, which surprised me, because the movie is a tame PG-13.

We did a lot of preview screenings, and to me, it felt like a seven-year-old might be scared, but in a good way. They liked that they were scared of Rita, but they still came out of the movie enjoying it, they liked what was going on. I think we really tread that line well, so it was disappointing that parents didn’t know that they could take their kids to it. I’m hoping now, with it coming out on DVD and Blu-ray, and On Demand, that parents will feel more comfortable. That maybe they’ll check it out for themselves and then see that it’s suitable.”

Power Rangers fans will just have to cross their fingers for a sequel, and hope that enough toy sales may warrant a follow-up to Israelite's fan-favorite take on the material.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD June 26, director Dean Israelite’s Power Rangers stars Dacre Montgomery as the Red Ranger, Naomi Scott as the Pink Ranger, Ludi Lin as the Black Ranger, R.J. Cyler as the Blue Ranger, Becky G as the Yellow Ranger, Bryan Cranston as Zordon and Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa.