Eddie Murphy and Eddie Murphy in Norbit.

To PG, or to not PG — that was the question for Paramount this week, as their February 9th movie, Norbit, starring Eddie Murphy, successfully received a PG-13 from the MPAA after its second submission to the ratings board. (The first go around received a R.) The teen-safe rating basically guarantees a bigger bottom line for the studio, and, as Norbit — the story of a mild-mannered fellow overwhelmed by his very, very, very, very, very zaftig wife — proves, size matters.

Let's not forget, before Murphy was a Golden Globe-winning crooner in Dreamgirls and a family-friendly jackass — errr, Donkey — in Shrek, he was the rat-a-tat-tat comedian who said "fuck" 230 times in his 1983 70-minute standup movie, Delirious — and this ratings tangle provided a little blast from Murphy's off-color past. Murphy plays Norbit, who was raised in a combination Chinese restaurant/orphanage, suffered the resulting damage to his self-esteem, and hooks up with an overbearing, hateful woman. (Thanks to some serious makeup and the fattest fat suit you've ever seen, Murphy also plays the Chinese guardian, Mr. Wong, and the overbearing wife, Rasputia.)

When it was first submitted to the MPAA, Norbit received an R for "some sex-related humor," according to the organization's website. (From the trailer, you can tell the movie is bawdy — there's running gag in which Rasputia, in a variety of come-hither outfits, squishes Norbit as she vaults into bed next to him.) Paramount/DreamWorks appealed the MPAA's decision, but the Classification & Ratings Appeals Board again tagged it with an R rating. The studio declined to comment on the specifics on how Norbit was edited to meet the MPAA's demands, but after the film was submitted to the MPAA for a second time, it received a PG-13 rating. (One can only imagine, given when Murphy's gotten away with in previous PG-13 movies — some movies get Rs for body counts; others get Rs for body fluid counts, we guess.)

It was a crucial compromise, because these kinds of rating fights could have a big impact on a studio's bottom dollar. According to movie stats site The-Numbers.com, since 1995, PG-13 movies have by far the highest average gross — $39 million compared to $14.7 million for R films. Historically, the top breadwinner for a PG-13 rated comedy is the 1993's family fave Mrs. Doubtfire, which, after adjusted for ticket price inflation, comes in with $341 million at the box office. By comparison, the highest-grossing R-rated comedy is 2005's Wedding Crashers, with $209 million. (1984's Ghostbusters is the top moneymaker overall for comedies, with an inflation-adjusted total of $455 million. It was rated PG, and came out three weeks before the PG-13 rating was adopted by the MPAA and theater owners.)

Norbit

In Norbit, the line between clever and crude is narrow — but that's what makes it great, director Brian Robbins (The Shaggy Dog) told Premiere late last year.

"It's kind of got this edge, but yet there is no reason that this should be an R rated movie but we definitely walk right up to the line," he says. "That's why [Eddie] was digging doing this movie, because he had done a bunch of those family movies in a row, and this let him get a little of that edge out, especially in the Rasputia character. And I think that's why he's so good in it."

And given that Norbit features Murphy in multiple-character mode — his 1996 PG-13 The Nutty Professor pulled in $128.8 million; the sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, made $123.3 million in 2000 — there was a certain semi-safe-for-the-kiddies reputation to protect. (You know, as safe as this quip from Buddy Love, the Nutty Professor's alter ego: "Your mom is so fat that after sex, I roll over twice and I'm still on the bitch!") With its grossout gags and humor targeted to teen boys, Norbit could be right in the PG-13 sweet spot.

"If it wasn't Eddie Murphy writing it, this movie would be so close to the bone, but it just has that license to poke fun and everybody and everything," says Thandie Newton, who plays a childhood friend with a torch for Norbit who returns to take over Mr. Wong's orphanage. "You've got a master of comedy who is at the helm of everything."