# Your First Rated R Movie in the Theater **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [July 7, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576 "2025-07-07T01:00:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/1 "2025-07-07T01:00:21Z")
Someone asked me what the first movie I can remember seeing in the theater that was rated R. I had to think pretty hard, trying to remember if I actually saw the movie in the theater or at home on VHS. _Blue Thunder_ released in 1983 starring Roy Scheider and Malcolm McDowell. I don’t remember much about the movie, but it’s about a new police helicopter with advanced technology and some conspiracy to use it for bad things. I was seven years old when I saw it. I lived in Munich, Germany at the time where a local theater was right right across the street from our apartment and they’d let me in with no questions asked so long as I bought a ticket. .50 cent matinees and a buck for an evening show with popcorn at .25 cents and a Coca-Cola .35 cents. Good times. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/2 "2025-07-07T01:08:13Z")
**Zardoz!** My dad watched it and was _awestruck._ So much so that he phoned the theater to instruct them that two of his sons, aged 13 and 15, could be expected to present themselves at the box office and should be granted access with his full permission nay insistence to this profound masterpiece. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/3 "2025-07-07T01:10:25Z")
Probably Robocop, Predator, or Lethal Weapon. I turned 17 that year and I know I saw those at the theater. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/4 "2025-07-07T01:12:41Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > My dad watched it and was _awestruck._ So much so that he phoned the theater to instruct them that two of his sons, aged 13 and 15, could be expected to present themselves at the box office and should be granted access with his full permission nay insistence to this profound masterpiece. I thought my parents were neglectful about what I watched, but inflicting Zardoz is something they never did to me. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/5 "2025-07-07T01:13:27Z")
My sister and cousin took me to see a double-feature of _The Blues Brothers_ and _Caddyshack_ when I was 13. Today those would probably both be PG-13 but back then that did not exist so both were rated “R” I think. Loved it. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/6 "2025-07-07T01:18:20Z")
Summer of 1982, when I was 17, I saw _[Class of 1984](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083739/)_ (kind of a thriller, I guess) in the theater with some friends, and two bad horror movies, one of which was called _[Inseminoid](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084090/)_ (basically, an exploitation-style rip-off of _Alien_; I don’t remember the name of the other one), at a drive-in with some other friends. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/7 "2025-07-07T01:19:46Z")
Well. I was 16 in 1969 when _Midnight Cowboy_ was released. It was given an ‘X’ rating, probably the equivalent of NC-17 today. The minimum age for X-rated movies at the time was 16. I saw the film at a drive-in with two buddies that summer. ETA: Technically this doesn’t qualify for this thread. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/8 "2025-07-07T01:22:27Z")
_Bonnie and Clyde_ when I was 14. My mom took me because my father wasn’t interested. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/9 "2025-07-07T01:26:43Z")
Oh that’s extremely easy. _The Last Married Couple in America_, 1980. My mother was a rather prudish individual, note. My folks failed to note in the newspaper WHY it was rated R. So off they dragged my sister (14) and myself (18) to a showing. Turns out it had full frontal female nudity, albeit in a rather unalluring scene. My mother giggled nervously in mortification throughout the entire scene, and I myself was beyond embarrassment. I forget what the first one was that I could go to alone (or with peers who were also of age). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/10 "2025-07-07T01:28:11Z")
I was actually going to answer with _Airplane!_ (1980), but despite the language, large amount of sexual innuendo, drug use (Lloyd Bridges using amphetamines and sniffing glue), and a brief shot of a pair of naked female breasts bouncing directly in front of the camera, it _somehow_ was only rated PG. ---
**Author:** ![rippingtons\_fan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rippingtons_fan/32/11767_2.png) [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/11 "2025-07-07T01:31:42Z")
My first R-rated movie in the Theatre (at least it was R-rated at the time, as I remember it), as **The Graduate** which I saw in 1968. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/12 "2025-07-07T01:34:09Z")
I think it was _The Hawaiians_, in 1970. It was certainly the first film I saw with full frontal nudity, a Japanese girl coming out of the bath. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/13 "2025-07-07T01:34:22Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > ETA: Technically this doesn’t qualify for this thread. You know what? It’s within the spirit of the thread if not the letter, so it qualifies. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/14 "2025-07-07T01:34:36Z")
**The Omen.** I remember it vividly. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/15 "2025-07-07T01:40:39Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > I was 16 in 1969 when _Midnight Cowboy_ was released. It was given an ‘X’ rating, probably the equivalent of NC-17 today. Rating-wise, yeah, as the MPA doesn’t issue “X” any longer, and NC-17 (which is an exceptionally rare rating for a film that makes it into theaters) serves the similar role of preventing any minors from attending. But, that said, from what I’ve read, if _Midnight Cowboy_ came out today, given how the ratings are applied today, it’d likely get no worse than an R. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/16 "2025-07-07T01:43:48Z")
The Exorcist, I was underage and my cousins got me in. My cousin made many crude jokes and we laughed through most of it. But I think I saw Bonnie and Clyde at the drive In with my parents when it came out, so I would have been maybe 8. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/17 "2025-07-07T01:44:45Z")
I was going to say “Clockwork Orange”, but I actually did see “Midnight Cowboy” first. Also at 16. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/18 "2025-07-07T01:47:04Z")
(Nope – that was only a PG.) ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/19 "2025-07-07T01:49:56Z")
_Revenge of the Nerds_ when I was not quite 14, for a friends birthday. I know the mom was supposed to get us tickets for something else, but it wasn’t playing anymore. Based on releases at the time, possible _The Last Starfighter_. She thought a movie about nerds would be fine. The mom didn’t stay for the movie, so we just decided to not mention exactly how fun that movie was for a bunch of 13 year old boys. The only time I ever got carded for a movie was a few years later when I took a date to see something R rated in 1987 or 88, and she was rejected because she was only 16. I remember we ended up seeing something terrible that was PG. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/20 "2025-07-07T01:55:00Z")
I was a very well behaved kid. I didn’t break any rules. I’m pretty sure my parents let me see some R rated movies at home but only after they watched them first. I went to see a movie with a friend and his parents in the theater. I got upset when I found out it was rated R and I didn’t get permission from my parents. My friend’s parents assured me it would be ok. I was 12 or 13. The movie was _The Big Red One._ I didn’t get in trouble. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576.md?page=2)