What do movie ratings mean

May contain some material parents might not like for their young children. Parents are urged to be cautious. Some material may not be appropriate for pre-teenagers.

A PG movie can include a single use of what the board deems a "harsher, sexually derived word," as long as it is only used as an expletive, not in a sexual context. R --"Restricted. Under 17 Requires Accompanying Parent or Adult Guardian" : The Rating Board applies this rating to movies the members believe contain a high level of adult content, such as harsh profanity, intense violence, explicit sexual content and extensive drug use.

In some states, the minimum age to see an R rated movie unaccompanied is NC "No One 17 And Under Admitted" : Originally called X, this rating is applied to films the board believes most parents will consider inappropriate for children. It indicates only that adult content is more intense than in an R movie; it does not imply any sort of obscenity. As with films rated R, the minimum age to see a NC movie is 18 in some states.

The five movie rating categories are: G, or General Audience. PG, or Parental Guidance Suggested. PG, or Parents Strongly Cautioned. R, or Restricted. Is NC worse than R? While an R-rated movie features a high level of adult content, an NC film features adult content that's more intense than an R-rated one.

Can a year-old watch a PG movie? PG-rated films should be perfectly fine for year-old viewers. By today's standards, the occasional glimpse of a bare leg or a suggestive word seems tame, but in that era such behavior was scandalous. Its mission was to ensure that the movies depicted "correct standards of life" and, studio executives hoped, to avoid the future threat of government censorship.

That changed in when Hays hired Joseph I. Breen, a lobbyist with deep ties to the Catholic Church, to head the new Production Code Administration. Going forward, every film had to be reviewed and rated to be released.

Breen and his team took to their work with zest. For example, "Casablanca" had its famous ending scene altered to tone down the sexual tension between Humphrey Bogart's and Ingrid Bergman's characters. In the s, a handful of filmmakers circumvented Hollywood censors by releasing their films independently of the studio system. Most notable was "The Outlaw," a film starring Jane Russell that gave ample screen time to her famous bosom.

After battling censors for five years, director Howard Hughes finally persuaded United Artists to release the film, which was a box office smash. Breen tightened the code's restrictions in , but its days were numbered.

Hollywood continued to abide by the Motion Picture Production Code into the early s. But as the old studio system crumbled and cultural tastes changed, Hollywood realized that it needed a new way to rate films.

Are you a filmmaker looking to have your film rated? Start the submission process with the Classification and Rating Administration. Close Search for:. Showing results for " " within MotionPictures. News Sign up for updates.

Film Ratings. Informing Parents Since