movie ratings

G - General Audiences
All ages admitted.
No nudity, no sex, no drugs, minimal violence, and very limited use of language that goes beyond polite conversation, such as an occasional d^^% or H$%#.

PG - Parental Guidance Suggested
Some material may not be suitable for children.
May contain some profanity and nudity, mild violence, or very mild drug references.

PG-13 - Parents Strongly Cautioned
Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
May contain strong language, some explicit nudity, mildly bloody violence or gore, or mild drug content.

R - Restricted
Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
May contain very strong or sexual language, strong explicit nudity, strong violence and gore, or strong drug content.

NC-17 - No One Under 17 Admitted
May contain very strong sexual or offensive language, strong explicit nudity, very strong gore or disturbing violence, or strong drug abuse.
If a film is not submitted for rating, the label NR (Not Rated) is used; however, "NR" is not an official MPAA classification. Films as yet unrated by the MPAA, but that are expected to be submitted for rating, are often advertised with the notice "This Film is Not Yet Rated" or, less frequently, "Rating Pending."

[edit]
The original movie ratings (used from 1968 to 1970) were:

Rated G: Suggested for general audiences. All ages admitted.
Rated M: Suggested for mature audiences. Parental discretion advised.
Rated R: Restricted. Persons under 16 not admitted unless accompanied by parent or adult guardian.
Rated X: Persons under 16 not admitted.
This content classification system originally was to have three ratings, ending with the Restricted rating (like the system then used in most of Canada); however, business pressure from cinema owners forced the MPAA's creation of an exclusively adult "X" film rating to protect them from local church-instigated complaints and lawsuits. Initially, the "X" rating was not an MPAA trademark: any producer not submitting a movie for MPAA rating could self-apply the "X" rating (or any other symbol or description that was not an MPAA trademark

The ratings then used, from 1970 to 1972, were:

Rated G: All ages admitted. General audiences.
Rated GP: All ages admitted. Parental guidance suggested.
Rated R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Rated X: No one under 17 admitted
In the GP-rating, the "G" meant the film was not age-restricted (like the G rating, "All Ages Admitted"), while the "P" told audiences that, despite the lack of age restriction, parental discretion was expected. However, many misunderstood GP as an abbreviation for "General Patronage". The change from "M" to "GP" took effect on March 1, 1970;[5] again, "GP" confusion caused its revision to the "PG" rating, an abbreviation for Parental Guidance.
The ratings used from 1972 to 1984 were:

Rated G: General Audiences—All ages admitted.
Rated PG: Parental Guidance Suggested—Some material may not be suitable for pre-teenagers.
Rated R: Restricted—Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Rated X: No one under 17 admitted.
By then, the rating box contained the rating in boldface, the MPAA logo, and the content advisory warning. From the adoption of the system through the mid-1970s, mildly adult mainstream films such as Airport, Planet of the Apes, The Green Berets, The Odd Couple, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and 2001: A Space Odyssey were commonly released with G ratings. However, by 1978, the G rating became over-associated with children's films, while the PG rating became the norm for "family" films. Most G-rated films from the system's early years are today perceived as having PG and PG-13 content. So, most G-rated movies from the 1960s and 1970s have often been re-rated PG in later years.

In retrospect, some ratings of this era seem rather odd, though it must be remembered that the rating standards then were more liberal; violence, sexually suggestive speech and action, naked men, and mild cursing were acceptable in the lower ratings, while sexual intercourse (either implicit or explicit) and naked women were not. A movie's rating depended on the personal mores and opinion of the individual censors. For example, the G-rated Battle of Britain (1967) had mild British cursing and explicit killings of RAF and Luftwaffe aircrew. True Grit was G-rated after being edited down in tone; however, it still contained American cursing and strong cowboy violence. Larry Cohen's cult horror film It's Alive (1974), about a killer mutant infant, re-released in 1977, was rated PG despite being bloody per the standards of the time. On the other hand, both its sequels, It Lives Again (1978) and It's Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987) (released direct-to-video), were rated R. Nevertheless, Finland banned all three films per its film rating system.

Moreover, The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) was rated R instead of M (despite its violence being no more explicit than, say, the James Bond films of the time), because of a chess-game-as-sexual-foreplay between the protagonist and antagonist. The scene would most likely give the film a PG-13 rating today, however (though the 1999 remake of the movie was also rated R).

In 1975, the phrase May Be Too Intense For Younger Children accompanied the PG rating featured in the advertising for Jaws (1975).

In the late 1970s, the PG rating was reworded, the word pre-teenagers replaced with children. An analysis of the proportion of films rated G and PG at that time (corresponding with a cultural shift to stricter rating standards) shows that fewer G ratings were issued, while more family films were rated PG with the less restrictive "children" label. By the early 1980s, the phrase "pre-teenagers" was almost unused, and, in 1984, the PG-13 rating (see below) was established, restoring the clear distinction (see GP and GP* above) between films of lighter and heavier content.

By the end of the 1970s, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) was the last commercially successful mainstream film that was rated G (The re-edited director's cut became PG for sci-fi action violence and some cursing, although the ratings-related content was effectively unchanged, thus showing that the standards for the G rating had narrowed significantly between its use in the 1960s and 1970s and in later decades.). Since then, such movies would be released with a PG rating. That transition was when live-action Disney movies, such as The Black Hole, The Watcher in the Woods, and The Devil and Max Devlin were rated PG.

Before July 1, 1984, there was a minor trend of cinema straddling the PG and R ratings (per MPAA records of appeals to its decisions in the early 1980s), suggesting a needed middle ground. Disney's PG-rated Dragonslayer (1981, distributed by Paramount Pictures in the USA) alarmed parents with explicit fantasy violence and blood-letting. In summer of 1982, Poltergeist (1982) was re-rated PG on appeal, although originally rated R for strong supernatural violence and marijuana-smoking parents.

Because of such successful appeals, based upon artistic intent, many mild, mainstream movies were rated PG instead of R because of only some thematically necessary strong cursing, e.g. Tootsie, Terms of Endearment, Sixteen Candles, and Footloose. These censorship reversals were consequence, in large measure, of the 1970s precedent established by All the President's Men.[7] Had these movies been released after 1984, they likely would have been rated PG-13 because of their content.

In 1984, explicit violence in the PG-rated films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins were "the straws that broke the parents' backs". Their complaints led Hollywood figure Steven Spielberg, director of Temple of Doom, to suggest a new rating, PG-14, to MPAA president Jack Valenti. Instead, on conferring with cinema owners, Mr Valenti and the MPAA on July 1, 1984, introduced the PG-13 rating, allowing in children under 13 years of age without a parent or an adult guardian, but warning parents about potentially shocking violence, cursing, and mature subject matter that may be inappropriate for children under 13; though weaker than an R rating, PG-13 is the strongest unrestricted rating. The first widely-distributed PG-13 movie was Red Dawn (1984), followed by Dreamscape (1984), and The Flamingo Kid (1984), although The Flamingo Kid was the first film so rated by the board.[8][9]

It took a year for the PG-13 logotype to metamorphose to its current form, as noted below.

The ratings used from 1984 to 1986 were:

Rated G: General Audiences — All ages admitted.
Rated PG: Parental Guidance Suggested — Some material may not be suitable for children.
Rated PG-13: Parents are strongly cautioned to give special guidance for attendance of children under 13 - Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13
Rated R: Restricted — Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Rated X: No one under 17 admitted.
The ratings then used from 1986 to 1990 were:

Rated G: GENERAL AUDIENCES—All ages admitted.
Rated PG: PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED—Some material may not be suitable for children.
Rated PG-13: PARENTS STRONGLY CAUTIONED—Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Rated R: RESTRICTED—Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Rated X: NO ONE UNDER 17 ADMITTED
With the PG rating still being used unchanged, it remained unclear to some parents, at first, whether or not PG and PG-13 films were intended for adults. Until 1990, some of the same content that prompted the creation of the PG-13 rating was in some PG films. For example, Big, Spies Like Us, Spaceballs, and Nothing in Common were four late-1980s PG releases containing PG-13-level innuendo; the dialogue of two contained the word f***.

The socially and culturally conservative ratings board quickly reacted to protesting parents, and PG-13 films outnumbered PG films; content standards were narrowed for PG classification. At decade's turn, PG-13 rating standards also were narrowed, at least for violence, as the censors became more likely to issue R ratings to violent films showing explicit blood-letting and the killing of policemen. Except for a brief reversal in 1994, the number of PG-13 films outnumbered the PG films since, and the proportion of R-rated films (beginning with the boom of privately-viewed home video in the late 1980s) has generally increased at the expense of unrestricted films. Only within the last two years has there been an indication that the proportion of restricted films has slightly decreased as a cultural trend.

NC-17 replaces X
In the rating system's early years, X-rated movies, such as Midnight Cowboy (1969), A Clockwork Orange (1971), and Last Tango in Paris (1973), could earn Oscar nominations and win awards, yet film makers continue disputing the true effects of an X rating.

That the MPAA rated those mainstream movies X as if they were pornography only underscored the contradictions between commerce and art. Although Deep Throat (1972), Behind the Green Door, and The Devil in Miss Jones were rated X, the rating never was either an official rating or trademark of the MPAA. Pornographers often self-applied it for business reasons, to the degree that it became acceptable in their advertising, and then the eponym for pornography in American mainstream culture; not the rating's original intent. Ironically, its overuse led pornographers to rate their films XXX to increase the success of their marketing efforts.[10]

This concern led many newspapers and television stations to refuse advertisements for X-rated movies; some cinema owners forbade the exhibition of such films. Such policies led to the distributors' compromise with George Romero about his classic zombie horror film Dawn of the Dead (1978): participating NATO cinema owners would enforce the audience restriction rating, but the letter X would not appear in advertising; instead, the content warning advisory message: There is no explicit sex in this picture; however, there are scenes of violence, which may be considered shocking. No one under 17 will be admitted would be displayed.

The MPAA stresses the voluntary nature of their film rating system, denying that it could inhibit a film's commercial distribution and so deny the businessman-filmmaker the right to earn a profit and make a living. Horror films, such as the sequel Day of the Dead (1985) and Re-Animator (1985) were so marketed. Some, such as the horror parody Evil Dead 2 did earn an adult rating, while others, such as Guardian of Hell and Zombie, used such violent content warnings along with their R ratings (sometimes deliberately surrendered) as profitable marketing ploys.

In 1989, two critically-acclaimed mainstream art films, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer were released featuring very strong sexual and violent content. Neither was approved for an R rating, hence had limited commercial distribution and so suffered commercially as unrated films. At around that time, the MPAA revised its rating system. Again, in answer to such dilemmas between art and commerce, director David Lynch (writer and director of Blue Velvet (1986)), suggested establishing an RR rating for such mainstream adult drama films.

On September 27, 1990, the MPAA introduced the rating NC-17 ("No Children Under 17 Admitted") as its official, standardized rating allowing the commercial distribution of adult-oriented cinema bearing the MPAA seal. This rating, as opposed to no rating, would in practice be an indication that the film is not pornography. (Pornographers tend not to submit their films for rating, since pornography is either independently distributed to cinemas or directly to video distributors.) Thus, people could differentiate between MPAA-rated adult mainstream cinema and pornography at last, leaving the definition of "obscene" to the viewer's private thoughts.

The ratings used from 1990-1995 were:

Rated G: GENERAL AUDIENCES—All ages admitted
Rated PG: PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED—Some material may not be suitable for children
Rated PG-13: PARENTS STRONGLY CAUTIONED—Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Rated R: RESTRICTED—Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Rated NC-17: NO CHILDREN UNDER 17 ADMITTED
But in practice, communications media that refused to advertise pornography and X-rated films also refused to advertise NC-17 movies as equally unsuitable for family consumption through their venues, ironically transferring censorship authority to cinema landlords' decisions to permit or deny the exhibition of such movies. In addition, socially conservative and religious groups pressured video distribution businesses (e.g. Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video), to not rent or sell NC-17 movies, citing "family values". Nevertheless, the stores do rent and sell the movies, provided they are not explicitly labeled as such, i.e. are in a plain wrapper.

In 1995, the NC-17 rating age limit was subtly increased by one year, by rewording it from "No Children Under 17 Admitted" to "No One 17 And Under Admitted".

Starting with Henry & June (1990), few NC-17 movies have proved profitable, but United Artists, boldly attempting to broaden public acceptance of such films, marketed the big budget drama Showgirls with clever, colourful television and print advertising. To date, it was the first and only widely distributed NC-17 movie, to 1,388 cinemas, simultaneously. It also was critically savaged, earned little money for the studio, and for a time, established the NC-17 rating as commercially untenable: "box office poison" in journalese. Also, Showgirls was a factor in the ultimate failure of Carolco Pictures, the co-distributor/international distributor of the film.

The makers of the critically-successful anti-drug film Requiem for a Dream (2000) released it unrated, rather than endanger any commercial success with an NC-17 rating. The MPAA had threatened using that rating because of an orgy depicted in the movie's climax. Despite artistic intent, the MPAA rejected the filmmakers' appeal for an R rating. Today, the NC-17 rating tends to cinema appealing to the art house patrons who do not interpret the rating as either a positive or a negative reflection upon a film's content.

Most NC-17 films are released in cinemas, either in an edited, R-rated version or in its original version. Most films that were rated NC-17 would be re-edited to get R ratings for United States theatrical release, and later get released as both the original, unrated "uncut" version and the censored R-rated version on the home video market (e.g. Basic Instinct). Only the viewers can determine whether or not that was a marketing strategy to make more money, or if it is censorship. Ironically, American film studios release NC-17 movies abroad uncensored and artistically intact, adding controversy to the subject of the MPAA's movie ratings system in the United States.

Still, there are some exceptions: for example, the studio Fox Searchlight Pictures released the original NC-17-rated American edition of the European movie The Dreamers (2003) in the United States theatrically, and later released both the original NC-17-rated "Director's Cut" and the censored R-rated version on DVD. A Fox Searchlight spokesman said the NC-17 rating did not give them too much trouble in releasing this film (they had no problem booking it, and only a Mormon-owned newspaper in Salt Lake City refused to take the film's ad), and Fox Searchlight was satisfied with this film's United States box office result.[11]

The most recent major-studio film rated NC-17 is Focus Features' Lust, Caution (2007), about an assassination conspiracy in Shanghai during World War II, on account of its eroticism, not its violence; director Ang Lee did not alter his film for distribution in the U.S.A.[12] Even with the NC-17 rating, major theater circuits like Regal and AMC had no issue with booking this film, and most newspapers had no issue with accepting this film's ads (except for Salt Lake City);[1] it grossed $4.6 million in the United States theatrically,[2] and Focus was very satisfied with this film's theatrical release. [3] National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) even gave a Freedom of Expression Award to Lust, Caution for its NC-17 rating.[13]

Even though NC-17 films did not become big box office hits in the United States, they tended to make much more money on the home video/DVD market.[14] For example, Showgirls became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers,[15] and Lust, Caution has generated more than $24 million from its DVD sales and rentals in the United States.[14][16]

However, there are still many motion picture companies that are reluctant to release movies with, or with the potential of receiving, an NC-17 rating. Many motion picture groups either release their movies unrated or rated R rather than release the films under the NC-17 rating labels marked on them by the MPAA.

In March 2007, according to Variety, MPAA chairman Dan Glickman has been trying to create a new rating called "Hard R" for films that contain too much violence, sexual content, language, and impudence; the suggested rating would also prohibit people under the age of 18 to watch the films, much like NC-17. The move is apparently motivated by parents, who have been pressuring Glickman and the MPAA to create a new rating to solve the problem because they think the R rating is too "wide-ranged". The other problem is that if Hard R horror films were rated NC-17, they would lose a large amount of the teen audience.

Film studios have also pressured the MPAA to retire the NC-17 rating, because it can make their film worthless (e.g. most Blockbuster stores refuse to carry DVDs rated NC-17 and many daily newspapers also refuse ads for NC-17 films).[17][18]

The MPAA also rates movie trailers for theatrical exhibition. This system uses 3 ratings: green band for previews that have been approved for all audiences (shown before any films), yellow band for previews approved for mature audiences (shown before PG-13, R and NC-17 films), and red band for trailers approved for restricted audiences (shown before R and NC-17 films only). The colors refer to the cards shown before trailers indicating whether they are intended for general, mature, or restricted audiences. As long as the trailer meets the MPAA guidelines for a green band rating, the rating for the film it is advertising is irrelevant. Theoretically a green band trailer for an R-rated movie can play before a family film, although most theaters will not do this in practice.
^[1-18] see this page