Controversial business practices
Blockbuster’s massive international permeation and domination of the video market has placed certain business practices under scrutiny.
Claiming to serve a “family” audience, Blockbuster has always banned pornography, though carrying R-rated films, including a large number of “soft porn” titles and extremely violent action and horror films. Blockbuster claims to check ID and does not allow rental of titles with a rating over PG-13 to children under 17 unless their parents have specifically allowed it through a family account. In practice, some have found these rules inconsistently applied, if at all.[citation needed]
On September 27, 1990, the MPAA introduced the NC-17 rating in order to distinguish nonpornographic adult material from pornographic ‘X-rated’ materials. Subsequently, under pressure from the Christian organization the American Family Association, headed by Rev. Donald Wildmon, Blockbuster decided not to stock NC-17 titles and also to ban certain “unrated” titles from its store shelves, regardless of whether or not these titles constituted “pornography”. Originally, the AFA also convinced Blockbuster to ban certain contentious films such as The Last Temptation of Christ, although Blockbuster’s online service and some of its stores currently carry that and other controversial films,[citation needed] as well as older NC-17-rated films such as Henry and June and Showgirls.
Critics of the chain, including Naomi Klein in her anti-globalization book No Logo (1999), allege that Blockbuster is involved in “censorship,” because it not only bans certain titles, but often edits videos for release beyond the standard retail cut, or uses its significant market share to influence studios to do so. Blockbuster’s critics claim this editing to secure more “family-friendly” ratings is a necessity for studios if they want their products to reach a wider video market.
Recent award-winning movies such as Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000), Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2000) and Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education (2004) have been subject to such editing, and are typically unavailable for rental in their original form in most Blockbuster locations, even though the original uncut, unrated theatrical-version DVDs are widely available for purchase in other retail outlets. Instead, Blockbuster (if it carries such films at all) carries special R-rated versions, issued by the distributors but allegedly designed specifically for Blockbuster’s audience, much like the “clean” versions of Parental Advisory music releases found in Wal-Mart stores. Furthermore, Blockbuster does not mark these titles as edited versions so customers are unaware that they are not getting the original version. However, for highly commercial films such as Anchorman or the American Pie series, Blockbuster will often carry an “unrated” DVD release instead of or in addition to the theatrical PG-13 or R-rated cut. In this case, the “unrated” version has often been specifically designed to appeal to the larger older teen market available through Blockbuster stores, advertising enhanced sexual or other content that supposedly would have secured it an NC-17, had this version ever been submitted to the MPAA for a rating. In addition, Blockbuster also uses a “YRV” or “Youth Restricted Viewing” rating system to distinguish these racier, unrated DVDs. Any movie marked as YRV (usually on the same sticker with the barcode) is not recommended for or rented to any renter under the age of 17. With the addition of the YRV ratings, the once censored movies are gradually being re-released into the stores in their original conditions.
Blockbuster has received criticism from filmmakers for these practices,[citation needed] which allegedly discriminate against films of greater artistic merit. Some have seen the policy as flaunting the chain’s claim to be “family friendly”, by in practice allowing only the sort of commercial unrated titles that immature patrons would actually seek out, while censoring notable “art films” with equal or lesser content, which would be unlikely to appeal to most underaged patrons.
Blockbuster policy prohibits Adults Only-rated video games. Recently Blockbuster followed many other retail stores and pulled Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas from store shelves after the game’s rating was increased from Mature to Adults Only. Later, Blockbuster, again like its retail counterparts, began carrying a modified version of the game, from which “pornographic elements” had been removed.