Decoded: How the Movie Rating System Was Born, From G to NC-17
Every movie poster carries a tiny box with a letter or two inside it, and those letters have shaped what millions of us were allowed to watch growing up. The film rating system we know today wasn't handed down from on high. It grew out of decades of censorship battles, studio politics and a few infamous movies that pushed parents to demand something new.
Before the Ratings: The Hays Code
From the 1930s through the late 1960s, Hollywood policed itself under the Production Code, better known as the Hays Code. Instead of rating movies by age, it simply banned content the studios considered immoral, from profanity to on-screen kisses that lasted too long. By the 1960s, foreign films, independent filmmakers and changing social attitudes had left the code looking badly out of date.
1968: A New System Arrives
On November 1, 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America replaced the old code with a voluntary rating system. The original categories were G for general audiences, M for mature audiences, R for restricted and X for adults only. The idea was simple: let audiences, and especially parents, decide what to see. M soon gave way to GP and then to the familiar PG.
The Gap That Created PG-13
By the early 1980s, a gap had opened between PG and R. Summer blockbusters like Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom landed PG ratings despite scenes that frightened plenty of young viewers, and parents complained. The answer was PG-13, which took effect on July 1, 1984. The first film released with the new rating was Red Dawn, which opened that August.
From X to NC-17
The X rating had a problem: the studios never trademarked it, and adult-film makers adopted it as a marketing tool. Serious films that earned an X were often shut out of theaters and newspaper ads. In 1990 the MPAA replaced it with NC-17, and the first film to carry it was Henry & June. Around the same time, the board began adding short descriptions explaining why a film got its rating, such as violence, language or drug use.
A World of Ratings
The U.S. isn't alone. Britain's BBFC, Canada's provincial boards and many other countries run their own systems, which is why the same movie can carry different ratings depending on where you buy it. That's worth remembering when you collect imported DVDs and Blu-rays, since the box art often shows the local rating instead of the American one.
The organization now goes by the Motion Picture Association, but the letters on the box still tell parents and fans what to expect before the lights go down.
What was the first R-rated movie you snuck in to see, or the PG-13 film that scared you most as a kid? Tell us in the comments below.