‘Batman’ Rated Not-for-Kids in Belgium

“Batman,” the Warner Bros. blockbuster that has been breaking box office records all over the world, has been rated “Children Not Allowed” in Belgium, the Associated Press reported Friday. But Warner Bros. officials said the company intends to fight the restrictive rating in court before the movie, which was rated PG-13 in the United States, opens in Belgium on Sept. 13.

Thursday’s rating decision bans everybody under 16 from the movie and is expected to cut ticket sales by 30%--meaning a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Bruno Mertens, general manager of Warner Bros. Belgium. Batman has already raked in more than $230 million in the U.S. alone, and just this week it broke the record for the largest first-day take of any movie in the history of Australia.

“A movie like James Bond gets an ‘All Ages’ tag while Batman is ‘Children Not Allowed,’ ” Mertens said. “That is beyond comprehension for any professional who saw both movies.”

The Justice Ministry committee wrote that “Batman,” which stars Michael Keaton as the caped crusader and Jack Nicholson as the Joker, “exuded a general atmosphere of violence,” Mertens said. The ministry compared “Batman” with “A Clockwork Orange,” Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 cult classic that contained explicit violence, profanity and sex.