Wait a minute – R-rating equals success?

Coming just a week after news that movies with R-ratings were faring poorly at the box-office because of their restrictive ratings is this news from ticket sales site Fandango that shows R-rated movies are actually more popular than other, more accessible movies.

The results come from a survey run by Fandango that showed the R ratings of movies like Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder actually made the the movies more attractive to the site’s customers.

And that’s the key – To the site’s customers. As with all the survey results Fandango runs, it’s important to consider who the customers there actually are and question whether or not they’re representative of the larger public.

Hint: It’s not.

My guess would be that Fandango’s users tend to skew younger and more male than the general population, just as the survey results from someone like Moviefone are going to be skewed more toward an older female demographic.

So take this with a grain of salt. These movies would still be more successful if they were toned down and rated PG-13 since more people would be able to get in to see it. That much is just a no-brainer.