Watership Down (film) the US box office, earning only US$3 million against a budget of $4 million. The British Board of Film Classification have been criticized for declaring Watership Down as a U rating, which is intended for anyone at least 4 years of age. The film was released to theatres in the UK before the PG rating was created in the UK, but had never been rerated after the PG rating came. The fact that the film is an animation about rabbits makes many unaware parents mistake the film for being a typical child-friendly film, arguing that the frequency of gore, death,
Watership Down obituary of Collings, to accept "a book as bizarre by an unknown writer which had been turned down by the major London publishers; but," she continued, "it was also dazzlingly brave and intuitive." Collings had little capital and could not pay an advance but "he got a review copy onto every desk in London that mattered." Adams wrote that it was Collings who gave "Watership Down" its title. There was a second edition in 1973. Macmillan USA, then a media giant, published the first U.S. edition in 1974 and a Dutch edition was also published that year by Het Spectrum.