The Rating System as Part of the American Film Industry (1970–2019)
The Rating System as Part of the American Film Industry (1970–2019)

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt to indicate what role the rating system introduced in 1968 plays in the Amer-ican film industry. The first part provides an introduction to the history of American film censorshipand presents the reasons why the Production Code was replaced by a system of restrictions related tothe age of viewers. The second part of the text is analytical in nature. First, the distribution of indi-vidual rating categories in the 500 most popular films from 1970–2019 is checked, and it is revealedhow the understanding of individual categories has changed and how the US film industry itselfhas changed. The second study, based on statistical data, shows the distribution of rating categoriesamong all films distributed in the US in the years 2000–2019. This allows us to indicate the growth inthe importance of the PG and PG-13 categories and also the increase in both the number and marketshare of films that are not subject to the system introduced by the MPA.

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