# 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:** 2
**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, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/21 "2025-07-07T01:56:55Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > 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. The first, and to date only, movie I was ever carded for was _Mulholland Falls_ from 1996. It was a detective noir movie set in 1950s Los Angeles and was about the last movie any underaged kid was going to be interested in seeing and I was twenty at the time. I wasn’t offended that I was carded I just couldn’t believe it was happening. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/22 "2025-07-07T01:57:36Z")
I’m not absolutely sure but I think it might have been **“Rosemary’s Baby,”** released in the summer of 1968 and one of the earlier films given an R rating. I worked at a movie theater later that year and saw two films there (over and over again) which both were rather graphic for the time but were only given the “M” rating (“Suggested for Mature Audiences”): “The Boston Strangler” and “Coogan’s Bluff.” “M” later became “PG” (Parental Guidance.) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/23 "2025-07-07T02:00:50Z")
**Carrie** (1976) My parents rarely went to the movies, so seeing an ‘R’-rated film was impossible for me until I was allowed to borrow the car. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/24 "2025-07-07T02:08:06Z")
My wife gets upset when I put my own spin on the title of that movie. Apparently, it’s not supposed to be “The Big _RED_ One.” Perhaps any movie with that title might be more harshly rated than ‘R’! ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/25 "2025-07-07T02:12:32Z")
For me it was Animal House. I was about to turn 14, was pretty much my full height, and had facial hair. I bought a ticket to another movie and went. I believe I had originally planned to see the Sgt. Pepper movie, but it sold out. My Dad saw me come out of Animal House, but wasn’t upset about it. ---
**Author:** ![DaveUnknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@DaveUnknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveUnknown)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/26 "2025-07-07T02:13:18Z")
In the theater was Trading Places- I guess I was about 13? With my parents. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/27 "2025-07-07T02:14:20Z")
I was nine when my parents took me to see M-A-S-H at a drive-in (we almost always saw movies as a family at drive-ins, because my dad detested regular theaters). It was my first time seeing pubes. A few months later, we went to see it again, this time with my older brother who had been away at camp when the rest of us first saw it. At the critical scene, I started cracking up and shouting to my brother: “I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU!” I carried a crush on Sally Kellerman for years. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/28 "2025-07-07T02:20:02Z")
Alice’s Restaurant. It really didn’t deserve to be rated R, but there was a scene where a teeny-bopper (the actress was an adult) was trying to seduce Arlo, and there were boobies, so I guess that was enough. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/29 "2025-07-07T02:25:10Z")
In '71 Mum took this 7 y.o. to see “Light of the Edge of the World” because it’s possible she had a Kirk Douglas thing going, and figured why not show me a pirate movie. Surprised to find out it was just PG-13, with all the bloody violence, including a woman getting stabbed in the breast as blood gushes out, and dude strung up on a mast getting scraped by some pronged thingie attached to a long pole weilded by Yul Bruynner. When I was 15 in '80 the old man and I checked out “Halloween” and “The Shining” - can’t remember which was first. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/30 "2025-07-07T02:25:50Z")
Shampoo. Boring. My mom was scandalized. ---
**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, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/31 "2025-07-07T02:27:29Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Surprised to find out it was just PG-13… PG-13 did not exist in 1971. PG-13 became a thing in July, 1984. Maybe _Light of the Edge of the World_ has gotten a new rating more recently. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/32 "2025-07-07T02:27:32Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > **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. That’s my first one, too! The funny thing is I had gone to the cinema at Henderson Hall Marine Barracks (we lived just a couple of blocks down the street from it) to see some Disney flick. As it turned out, the film had not been delivered so the projectionist put in the next available one in the stack. No age verification involved so I was quite impressed. It’s still one of my favorite movies. ---
**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, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/33 "2025-07-07T02:31:16Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > PG-13 did not exist in 1971. > > PG-13 became a thing in July, 1984. > > Maybe _Light of the Edge of the World_ has gotten a new rating more recently. [IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067345/) says that it got a “GP” rating. The initial MPAA rating system had “M” for the rating in between G and R, then renamed it “GP” in 1970, before renaming it (again) to “PG” in 1972. ---
**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, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/34 "2025-07-07T02:47:28Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > PG-13 became a thing in July, 1984 First such rated movie was _Red Dawn_, which was probably still in the theaters when I saw _Revenge of the Nerds_. I know my parents would have been far happier with the R rated _Revenge of the Nerds_ than the PG-13 _Red Dawn_, because some language, drinking, sex\[1\], and nudity was far preferable to them than violence. * * * 1. As a society, we had not yet come to the correct conclusion that RotN is on the wrong side of the “don’t rape people” line. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/35 "2025-07-07T03:04:44Z")
Probably _Ten_ in 1979. My aunt told my father it was a sweet movie. And he took the whole family to see it Christmas eve. I was in high school. My little sister was in elementary school. In addition to us, my brothers, and my parents, my great aunt (who had never married and may well have been a virgin) came too. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/36 "2025-07-07T03:10:14Z")
_[Shaft in Africa](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070679/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1),_ 1973. One last look at the Kingdom of Ethiopia before it fell. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/37 "2025-07-07T03:15:11Z")
Looking back through the movies my friends and I saw in the theaters back in the day, looks like it was _Beverly Hills Cop_. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/38 "2025-07-07T03:35:32Z")
_Lisztomania_ in ‘75. Id’ve been 10 or 11. There may have been something earlier; my parents took me along to a lot of weird shit when I was a kid. I recall them taking me and my friends to _Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex \* But Were Afraid to Ask_ for my birthday. I don’t think that would’ve been in’72 when it came out, but maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/39 "2025-07-07T04:04:52Z")
_Blazing Saddles_. I was 11 and can’t remember what adult took me. Probably a teenaged cousin. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576/40 "2025-07-07T04:19:57Z")
“The Legend of Frenchie King”, 1971. I was 10. The theatre must have screwed up, as this was in Ontario and NO WAY were a bunch of kids supposed to be watching that at a Saturday matinee! Bridget Bardot topless. I think it was a formative moment for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-rated-r-movie-in-the-theater/1020576.md?page=3)