History of the Film Ratings System

Emergence of the Nickelodeon The Invention of the Vitascope, the first film projector, allowed for a large audience to view a film at the same time. Along with the Vitascope came Nickelodeons. The first Nickelodeon opened in a store front in Pittsburgh, PA in June of 1905 Admission to a Nickelodeon was only a nickel, hence the name Nickelodeon and the film lasted 15-20 min.

Nickelodeon Controversy Working class, immigrants were attracted to the cheap form of entertainment. December of 1908 the Mayor of New York City had ordered that all nickel theaters be closed, arguing that they posed a “threat to the city’s physical and moral well being.”

“Hollywood” By the 1920’s the US reaches its era of greatest-ever output with an average of 800 feature films annually. This explosion was directly correlated with the growth of the studio system. The Big Eight - Universal Pictures Fox Film Corp (later 20th Century Fox) Columbia Pictures Warner Brothers Paramount MGM RKO United Artists

Introduction of the Rating System With the advent of talking pictures it was felt that a formal code on censorship should be written. The Production Code, a set of Industry guidelines governing the production of American motion pictures, was adopted March 31, 1930 by the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) which later became the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). For 4 years the Code went without any form of enforcement until the Production Code Administration was formed. This required filmmakers to submit their films for approval before their release. In order to receive approval, the movie had to be free of “excessive or lustful kissing,” and references to “sex perversion” and any depiction of childbirth, among other things. Enforcement of the Production Code became difficult so in the MPAA abandoned it entirely in the mid-1960s.

MPAA The MPAA began working on a ratings system so that there were virtually no restrictions on what could be in a film. The MPAA film rating system went into effect November 1, 1968 with 4 ratings: G, M, R, and X. M was later changed to PG and a PG-13 rating was added to create a tier between PG and R. The X rating was changed to NC-17 to distinguish it from pornography.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated Are Hollywood movies and independent films rated equally for comparable content? Does it make sense that extreme violence is given an R rating while sexuality is banished to the cutting room floor? Why do Hollywood studios receive detailed directions as to how to change an NC-17 film into an R, while independent films producers are left guessing? Does leaving the raters and the rating process secret leave the MPAA unaccountable for its decisions?