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 Cruise, who is almost unrecognizable as a bald studio executive with a colossal talent for cussing. "I think the audience will really enjoy him letting loose like that."
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 Ferrell and 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, arriving in theaters in back-to-back weeks with prospects of joining the R-rated hit parade.
Both comedies are loaded with violence, coarse language, and outrageous gags that the filmmakers could never have touched in a PG-13 movie.
At least a couple of racier comedies follow this fall. Kate Hudson, Dane Cook, and Jason Biggs's romantic comedy, "My Best Friend's Girl," comes with an R rating. Filmmaker Kevin Smith pushes the boundary even further: He's trying to talk his way down to an R rating for "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," starring Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, after the movie was slapped with an NC-17 designation that would bar anyone younger than 17 from theaters.
Of the 100 top-grossing comedies ranked by box-office tracker Media By Numbers, 47 were rated PG-13, 32 were PG, and eight had G ratings. Only 13 were rated R, with 1984's "Beverly Hills Cop" still the leader with $234.8 million.
Stiller's breakout role came with 1998's R-rated "There's Something About Mary," but his biggest hits are milder - the blockbusters "Meet the Fockers" (rated PG-13) and "Night at the Museum" (rated PG).