Latest in Classification And Rating Administration

Fifty years ago–on May 25, 1969, to be exact—United Artists walked into one of the all-time great film rating messes when it released John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy with the Motion Picture Association of America's dreaded "X–Persons under 17 not admitted." When Variety reviewed it on May 14, the movie, about a…

Remember when film ratings were supposed to be a matter of life and death? Harvey Weinstein went to war over the letter-grade assigned to movies like Bully, and used the ensuing controversy to sell them. Anti-smoking activists clamored for an R on every cigarette scene. United States Senators deliberated for days over…

At Forbes magazine, editors used to tell reporters: There's nothing more powerful than two crossing lines. They meant trend lines on a graph, as when rising expenses exceed falling revenue, sending a business into loss. In the 2016 Theatrical Market Statistics report released last week by the MPAA, just such crossing…

'Killer Joe' Gets NC-17; Planning To Appeal Rating LOS ANGELES — The Classification and Rating Appeals Board today upheld the NC-17 rating given to the movie Killer Joe. The Classification and Rating Administration (CARA) had assigned the movie the NC-17 rating for "graphic aberrant content involving violence and…