Cracked: 6 Bizarre Realities of How Movies Get Their Ratings
Its been nearly a decade since the release of “This Film Is Not Yet Rated.” Nothing about the MPAA has changed since then. When I saw this article today on Cracked, I figured we can’t have too many reminders of why corporations can’t be trusted to regulate themselves in any capacity whatsoever. (spoiler alert: its called “conflict of interest”)
Unless you have kids (or still are one), you probably stopped paying much attention to movie ratings a while back, but they’re actually the secret gatekeepers of Hollywood. The rating even determines whether a film can advertise via TV spots (NC-17 movies cannot). This means millions, maybe tens of millions of dollars lie between an R rating and an NC-17 rating. Even more money lies between PG-13 and R.
The MPAA is the final arbiter of exactly how many boobs we get to see in a given summer, and that is too much power for any one organization to hold. So who are they, and why are they qualified to choose our entertainment? In the course of our research, we spoke with Kirby Dick, director of the MPAA investigation documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated.
Edit: added IMDB link at top.