Special Report

Highest-Grossing R-Rated Movies of All Time

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

The modern movie rating system was created in 1968 by what was then the Motion Picture Association of America (“of America” has since been dropped). The ratings, which are voluntary on the part of the major film studios belonging to the Association, have evolved over the years. There are currently five categories: G (for general audiences), PG (parental guidance recommended), PG-13 (may be inappropriate for those under 13), R (restricted, meaning that anyone under 17 must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian), and NC-17 (no one under 17 admitted under any circumstances).

NC-17 ratings, usually given for extreme violence or sexual situations, are rare. There were only 90 of them between 1990 and 2020, and such films rarely receive wide theatrical release. R-rated films are another matter. More than 50% of all films released since 1968 have earned an R rating. According to the Hollywood Reporter in 2018, some 17,202 movies over the previous 50 years were R’s. That rating doesn’t seem to have hobbled ticket sales.

To compile a list of the 25 R-rated movies with the highest domestic ticket sales, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data by The Numbers, an online movie database owned by Nash Information Services. Films were ranked based on the inflation-adjusted domestic ticket sales. The data

covers all movies released in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico and Guam) and Canada since 1995. (For the biggest smash films in the category on an international basis, see this list of R-rated movies that broke the box office.)

Click here to see the highest-grossing R-rated movies of all time

All 25 movies on our list grossed more than $253 million, inflation-adjusted. Box-office success, however, did not necessarily translate into Academy Award honors. Only seven of the 25 films on our list won Oscars. (Two of them, “The Matrix” and “Saving Private Ryan,” won multiple awards as each broke new ground in cinematography and storytelling.)

Comedies are a favorite, whether they are rom-coms such as “The Wedding Crashers” or “Jerry Maguire,” raunchy flicks like “There’s Something About Mary” and the two Hangover films, or farces like “The Birdcage” and “Scary Movie.” (See where these fall on the roster of the highest-grossing R-rated comedies of all time.)

Films that have a historical theme loom large on the list: “300,” “Gladiator,” “American Sniper,” “Saving Private Ryan,” and “The Passion of the Christ.” Moviegoers who like a good fright made box-office winners out of “The Blair Witch Project,” “Hannibal,” and “It.”

Courtesy of Artisan Entertainment

25. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $253,689,664
> Genre: Horror
> Directors: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez

Told in a documentary style, “The Blair Witch Project” is about three young movie makers seeking evidence of a legendary witch in the woods in Maryland. They vanish but their equipment is recovered and the found footage documents their project up until their disappearance. The critically acclaimed film was made for less than $1 million and is one of the most profitable films of all time.

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Courtesy of Warner Bros.

24. Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $255,048,401
> Genre: Action
> Director: Richard Donner

The four buddy-cop Lethal Weapons films, all starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, have grossed more than $487 million domestically, but this one outpaced all the others..

Courtesy of United Artists

23. The Birdcage (1996)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $257,383,542
> Genre: Comedy
> Director: Mike Nichols

The Mike Nichols-helmed farce “The Birdcage” stars Robin Williams and Nathan Lane as gay parents of a son who plans to marry the daughter of a conservative couple. A favorite of both critics and audiences, the movie is a remake of the French film “La Cage aux Folles.”

Courtesy of Buena Vista Home Entertainment

22. Scary Movie (2000)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $267,137,524
> Genre: Comedy
> Director: Keenan Ivory Wayans

With Keenan Ivory Wayans at the helm and brother Marlon co-writing and co-starring, “Scary Movie” takes a lampoon sledgehammer to every horror movie cliché. The parody spawned four other films and the franchise has made about $712 million in domestic ticket sales gross in total.

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Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

21. Hannibal (2001)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $267,472,797
> Genre: Horror
> Director: Ridley Scott

“Hannibal,” one of two Ridley Scott-directed films on the list, is the sequel to “Silence of the Lambs.” Anthony Hopkins reprises his role as the brilliant cannibalistic killer, now on the loose in Europe, and disgraced FBI agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore, in place of Jodie Foster from the original movie) is dangled as bait to catch him.

Courtesy of Miramax

20. Good Will Hunting (1997)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $270,992,289
> Genre: Drama
> Director: Gus Van Sant

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who’ve known each other since they were kids growing up in Massachusetts, were the wiz kid tandem that won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for “Good Will Hunting,” in which both star. Damon plays a brilliant but unmotivated young man. He meets a therapist (Robin Williams) who begins to break down his defenses.

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Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

19. The Rock (1996)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $278,148,732
> Genre: Action
> Director: Michael Bay

This thriller stars Nicolas Cage as an FBI chemist and Sean Connery as a ex-British spy out to thwart a rogue general holding hostages at Alcatraz and threatening to unleash rockets filled with nerve gas on San Francisco unless the U.S. government pays reparations to families who lost loved ones in classified missions.

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

18. 300 (2006)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $280,717,872
> Genre: Action / historical
> Director: Zack Snyder

Zack Snyder used mind-blowing special effects in his reimagination of one of history’s great military stands – the 300 Spartans against the forces of Persia at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Gerard Butler stars as Sparta’s King Leonidas.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

17. Ransom (1996)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $282,614,201
> Genre: Action
> Director: Ron Howard

Mel Gibson is an airline executive whose son is held for a $2 million ransom. When the payoff fails, Gibson’s character turns the tables on the kidnappers by announcing on national television that he is making the ransom money a bounty for their heads.

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Courtesy of Warner Bros.

16. The Hangover Part II (2011)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $294,254,434
> Genre: Comedy
> Director: Todd Phillips

Two years after the first “Hangover” film was released, the sequel finds the guys (Justin Bartha, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, and Bradley Cooper) in the same kind of trouble they had previously encountered – only this time they are in Bangkok. Ken Jeong and Mike Tyson return as well.

Courtesy of New Line Cinema

15. Wedding Crashers (2005)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $299,303,023
> Genre: Comedy
> Director: David Dobkin

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, a latter-day Hope and Crosby, play two divorce mediators whose passion is crashing weddings. But they get more than they bargained for when they walk in on the wedding of the daughter of a presidential hopeful played by Christopher Walken. Rachel McAdams and Isla Fisher are the girls they meet at the event, and Bradley Cooper makes an early-career appearance in the movie.

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Courtesy of Warner Bros.

14. The Matrix (1999)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $309,367,006
> Genre: Action / science fiction
> Director: Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski

The Wachowskis’ mind-bending sci-fi actioner, which challenges reality, won four Oscars. Starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Anne Moss, “The Matrix” pioneered so-called “bullet-time” action sequences, inspired by Asian martial arts movies.

Courtesy of TriStar Pictures

13. Jerry Maguire (1996)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $313,973,409
> Genre: Romantic comedy
> Director: Cameron Crowe

This often-quoted rom-com stars Tom Cruise as an arrogant sports agent with a conscience who starts his own management firm and is joined by a single mom played by Renée Zellweger. Cuba Gooding Jr. is their lone client in the role that won him an Academy Award.

Courtesy of DreamWorks Distribution

12. Gladiator (2000)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $319,219,062
> Genre: Action / historical
> Director: Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott’s epic stars Russell Crowe in his Oscar-winning role as the Roman general Maximus, whose family is killed by Roman soldiers under orders from corrupt Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Maximus is forced into slavery and becomes a gladiator consumed by revenge.

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Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

11. Deadpool 2 (2018)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $326,729,117
> Genre: Action / superhero
> Director: David Leitch

Ryan Reynolds returned as the loopy, flawed superhero in a gory parody of the genre. In the sequel, Deadpool recruits mutant allies to protect a teen mutant from a genetically modified soldier from the future.

Courtesy of New Line Cinema

10. It (2017)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $334,783,459
> Genre: Horror
> Director: Andy Muschietti

“It” is based on a Stephen King novel about a group of bullied kids who band together over the summer to battle a shape-shifting monster that disguises itself as a clown known as Pennywise and preys on the children of a small town in Maine every 27 years. Critics hailed the quality of the action and the authentically frightening tale.

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Courtesy of Warner Bros.

9. The Hangover (2009)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $339,072,983
> Genre: Comedy
> Director: Todd Phillips

Three friends wake up hung over after a bachelor party in Las Vegas. However, the groom is missing. The friends set out to find him and encounter Las Vegas-style zaniness along the way. The film stars Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, and Bradley Cooper, with memorable appearances by Ken Jeong and Mike Tyson. The film was a critical and commercial success and inspired two sequels.

Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

8. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $344,800,904
> Genre: Romantic comedy
> Director: Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly

The humor in Robert and Peter Farrelly’s film is sometimes sophomoric, but the rom-com exerts a real sweetness, due to the casting of Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, and Ben Stiller, who helped make it box-office gold.

Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

7. Air Force One (1997)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $345,515,715
> Genre: Action
> Director: Wolfgang Petersen

Box-office sure thing Harrison Ford plays an American president whose jet is hijacked by terrorists. He falls back on his soldier’s instincts to try and subdue the terrorists and rescue his family. The movie is helmed by German director Wolfgang Petersen, whose noteworthy credits include “Das Boot.” and “In the Line of Fire.”

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Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

6. American Sniper (2014)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $380,938,233
> Genre: Drama
> Director: Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood directed this story of prolific American sniper Chris Kyle, who served four tours of duty in Iraq, but whose experiences in the war zone left an indelible mark on his psyche and affected his family life in the U.S. It is the highest-grossing movie in Eastwood’s storied career as a director and actor.

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

5. Joker (2019)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $382,690,725
> Genre: Thriller/Suspense
> Director: Todd Phillips

“Joker,” about how the arch enemy of Batman came to be, depicts the title character with a chilling realism, which won Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar. The film can also be viewed as a look at how society handles those with mental illness.

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Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

4. Deadpool (2016)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $384,896,922
> Genre: Action / superhero
> Director: Tim Miller

“Deadpool” puts the cheekiness of Ryan Reynolds to good use as a superhero who breaches the fourth wall and addresses the audience about dealing with his dilemma. He’s a man gifted with extraordinary powers but wears a superhero get-up because he was disfigured during an experimental treatment for cancer.

Courtesy of DreamWorks Distribution

3. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $419,118,848
> Genre: Drama / Historical Fiction
> Director: Steven Spielberg

Loosely based on the story of the Niland brothers, two of whom who perished during World War II, “Saving Private Ryan” is about an American patrol tasked with finding a paratrooper behind enemy lines whose brothers have all been killed in combat. Among the five Oscars won by the film were Best Director for Steven Spielberg and Best Cinematography for Janusz Kamiński, whose filming of the D-Day landings was so realistic that it upset World War II veterans watching the movie.

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

2. The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $428,167,052
> Genre: Science Fiction
> Director: Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski

The second of two of the Wachowski-helmed Matrix films repartnered Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Anne Moss in this dazzling film that combines action and mind-bending special effects.

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Courtesy of Newmarket Films

1. The Passion of the Christ (2004)
> Domestic ticket sales, inflation-adjusted: $547,493,401
> Genre: Drama
> Director: Mel Gibson

Two years before a DUI-fueled anti-Semitic rant almost scuttled his career, Mel Gibson directed this graphic and upsetting movie about the last hours of Jesus Christ (Jim Cavievel). Some critics were appalled, calling it a “primitive and pornographic bloodbath.” It resonated more with audiences and is the most successful of all R-rated movies.

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