Matthew Mcconaughey - Matthew Mcconaughey's New Film 'Killer Joe' To Struggle After Receiving Nc-17

Matthew Mcconaughey's new film 'Killer Joe' looks to be doomed to commercial mediocrity thanks to having a NC-17 rating slapped on it by the Motion Picture Assn. of America. The film enjoyed a limited release in three New York theatres over the weekend, according to the Los Angeles Times, and took $37,864, which makes for roughly $12,621 per location. To put that into some context though, the last NC-17 film to enjoy a limited release was the Michael Fassbender-starring 'Shame'; released in December, that film took in $36,118 during its limited run and ultimately went onto collect just $3.9 million domestically - albeit making it the seventh-highest grossing film ever with a restrictive rating.

MCConaughey seems to have embraced the controversy of the script though, which proves he's more than just a rom-com pretty boy. Talking to Fox he said "I thought (the script) was gross. I put it down and threw it in the trash and wanted nothing to do with it. Then I took a long, hot shower." He added "But some other people close to me read it and their opinion was 180 degrees different from mine. They were laughing so I went back and read it. The first time I read it I got so sucked into this ugly world, I never could get above that to see any levity or humanity. I just thought it was icky, sticky, gross and I didn't want to be in that company. Once I got the humour, it allowed me to see the story and the humanity."

The highest grossing NC-17 film of all time in the US is 1995's 'Showgirls', which took $20.4 million. It'll be a couple of weeks yet before we know how 'Killer Joe' fares in comparison