Troy draws the crowds despite 'disappointing' 16 rating

Over 11,000 people watched Troy in the first week of its release, a figure which KRS Film Distributors believe would have been much higher had censors not slapped the film with a 16 rating.

The epic $180 million budget film starring Brad Pitt as Achilles was tagged with a 16 rating by the Board of Film and Stage Classification.

"The rating was a great disappointment and in my personal opinion a farce. We were expecting it to be rated 12," KRS manager Alex Pace said.

"We believe this decision has reduced the turnover of cinema attendances by as much as 40 per cent because if children cannot watch the film their parents will also give it a miss," he pointed out.

What KRS found baffling was that Troy was less violent than Gladiator, which was rated 12 in Malta, and contained no frontal nudity either.

However, despite the rating Troy still managed to rank as the fourth best grossing film of all time in the first week of its opening, trailing Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which had the best opening ever, Titanic and Gladiator.

The film, which also stars Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean and Peter O'Toole, has a particular appeal in Malta since as many as 1,200 extras took part.

Filming of Troy began in the UK in April last year, following which the production moved to Malta, where exteriors of the city of Troy were erected over 10 acres of open space in the 17th century Fort Ricasoli.

Over 500 Maltese were hired and nearly 200 craftsmen were brought over from the UK for the construction of Troy at the beginning of last year.

Abroad the film received mixed reviews but KRS believes that Troy is the kind of genre the Maltese enjoy watching - a fun film with an action hero.

The film, with a running time of two hours and 44 minutes, is showing in cinemas in both Malta and Gozo.