A movie theater I often frequent has a sign that says “Under 18 not admitted to rated R movies after 6pm”. I think I’ve seen this at other movie theaters too, but I’m not sure.
Is there some law that says rated R movies are corrupting to kids, but only after 6PM, or something?
Just a WAG, but I think it means that kids under 18 can go to rated R movies before 6 pm, if accompanied by a parent/guardian/adult. After 6 pm, no kids under 18, period.
Movie ratings aren’t enforced by law.
That’s no fair. R is supposed to be for those 17 and older.
There are no laws regarding movie ratings. The MPAA has guidelines about what the ratings mean, but each theater or theater chain is free to set their own enforcement policies.
Oh, huh. I was always under the impression that, at least, kids had to be with a parent for an R rated movie by law.
It still is a bit odd that it’d have a 6pm cutoff. Maybe adults don’t want to go to adult movies on a friday night or something with a bunch of kids in the theater.
Yep, no legal enforcement at all; it’s all voluntary. Even for movies with a rating of NC-17. In fact, there’s no law that says filmmakers even have to submit their films for ratings. All it means legally is that you don’t get to put that squashed tomato at the end of your credits. If you think about it, since the MPAA is (I believe) an independent organization and not a government agency or anything like that, it would be rather strange if their ratings were backed by law.
Further, any movie ratings law would immediately raise free speech issues. The MPAA is voluntary, but if what they do were enforced by law, it would be censorship – a law “abridging the freedom of speech,” which is automatically unconstitutional.
Actually, a prior review of motion pictures isn’t always unconstitutional, say the supremes here .
Maryland used to have a law that required movies to be submitted for rating and censorship, so the studios just started appealing every rating for every film, effectively clogging the whole deal…
More likely than not, that’s the reason. They probably got customer feedback saying that they’d rather have evening showings for adults only - especially if enough parents got in the habit of bringing their infants along and not stepping out when they cried, or bringing young children to clearly inappropriate films just because the parents wanted to see a movie. Both of these situations can really annoy a lot of other customers.
While it’s true that film ratings are voluntary, in another way they are absolutely required.
Most theater chains will not show an unrated film, nor will many video/DVD rental outlets rent or sell them.
To leave your film unrated ensures that it will be seen by very few people at release, and will not be readily available to the public for rental or purchase. Not exactly a great marketing strategy.
NC-17 is the new X rating, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s porn. A film can receive an NC-17 rating for excessive violence or other disturbing images. Usually, a director will recut the film and resubmit it. You will have the same problem with a NC-17 film as with an unrated film- very few outlets for distribution.