Hatchi Matchi, hot stuff coming through! The Wolf of Wall Street is howling its way across the Atlantic, and the audacious three-hour magnum opus of decadence and financial desperation has already grossed $38 million overseas. But that’s not without a whole lot of pushback from those calling for poor elderly Martin Scorsese’s head. Wolf is a HARD-R, and at three hours it will test the more puritanical in the audience, some of which have been more than vocal about the picture’s content. But voicing one’s anger regarding the questionable material in the film isn’t just an American trait.
THR reports that the film has been going through extensive cuts and edits overseas in order to play to fairly packed houses. When the film hits DVD, at least it can carry the tag "Banned In Malaysia And Nepal!" as the film was considered too hot for those regions. India and Lebanon have also requested cuts to the film, while Singapore has limited the film to only a few theaters, where it has proceeded to ring up $300,000 in grosses. THR reports that the film has grabbed $17 million in France, with proportionally strong numbers in Poland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Everyone around the world can’t get enough Margot Robbie, it seems.
If you’ve seen the film, the requested edits are not hard to guess. You probably should have seen the movie by now, you heathen, but spoilers: Jonah Hill’s obvious prosthetic penis has been snipped (yeouch!) in India, as well as the whole cocaine-butt segment and the gay orgy that occurs in Belfort’s apartment that, huh… bet you forgot that scene was in there, didn’t you? India also had qualms about the line, "All nuns are lesbians," because apparently it’s offensive to address clergywomen by minimizing them to a sexual orientation they may not endorse. This was a pretty mean movie! Other regions have requested similar cuts: United Arab Emirates eliminated 45 minutes from the finished film, which oddly enough shrinks the film to about three minutes shorter than American Hustle. 45 minutes! That’s like half a Pixar movie!
Wolf Of Wall Street still has a number of regions left, as it spreads into large swaths of Europe this weekend. The picture’s actually got quite a giddyup to go before it can be profitable for Paramount. The budget is a reported $100 million, which is just about the same amount Warner Bros. spent to actually send Sandra Bullock and George Clooney into space for Gravity. The picture’s a lock to cross $100 million domestically, and might even receive a strong bump from Academy Award nominations tomorrow. But it probably isn’t cheap to promote a holiday season release, particularly as Wolf was one of five Christmas Day wide releases this year. Getting to $200 million worldwide would be nice: $250 might be a solid win, possibly getting the film into theatrical profit. Regardless, these edits and bannings might not have a huge effect if people still want to see the movie. Lebanon requested the same cuts that the film received in India, but due to pressure from fans, they relented and only cut the gay orgy scene. Surely, this is one Wolf you can’t stop from howling!
