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125-650: The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture 's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion pictures are the responsibility of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), previously known as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) from 1945 to 2019. The MPA rating system

250-422: A movie , is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally accompanied by sound and (less commonly) other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema" is a shortening of the word " cinematography " and is used to refer to either filmmaking , the film industry , the overall art form, or

375-432: A movie theater . The moving images of a film are created by photographing actual scenes with a motion-picture camera , by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques, by means of CGI and computer animation , or by a combination of some or all of these techniques, and other visual effects . Before the introduction of digital production, a series of still images were recorded on

500-477: A 2011 documentary about bullying, and Philomena —which has two instances of the word—released in 2013, were originally given R ratings on grounds of the language but the ratings were dropped to PG-13 after successful appeals (albeit Bully needed some cuts). The King's Speech , however, was given an R rating for one scene using the word fuck several times in a speech therapy context; the MPAA refused to recertify

625-666: A Film would probably be about the aesthetics or theory of film, while a book entitled Let's Go to the Movies would probably be about the history of entertaining movies and blockbusters . National Association of Theatre Owners NATO was founded in 1965 by the merger of the largest movie theater trade organizations, the Theater Owners of America and the Allied States Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors. The long-running official magazine of NATO

750-667: A PG-13 rating. Nudity that is sexually oriented will generally require an R rating. Since 2006, films have been flagged by the MPAA for carrying nudity. In 2010, the MPAA flagged three films specifically for " male nudity ", precipitated by parental pressure in response to Brüno . In 2018, MPAA Ratings Chair Joan Graves clarified the MPA's position by stating that "we don't usually define [nudity] as male or female ... usually, we just mention partial nudity, [or] graphic nudity." The MPAA does not have any explicit criteria for sexual content other than excluding sex scenes from G-rated films. Prior to

875-611: A coin-operated peep-box Electrotachyscope model were manufactured by Siemens & Halske in Berlin and sold internationally. Nearly 34,000 people paid to see it at the Berlin Exhibition Park in the summer of 1892. Others saw it in London or at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair . On 25 November 1894, Anschütz introduced a Electrotachyscope projector with a 6x8 meter screening in Berlin. Between 22 February and 30 March 1895,

1000-411: A contract that called for an annual salary of one million dollars. From 1931 to 1956, film was also the only image storage and playback system for television programming until the introduction of videotape recorders . In the United States, much of the film industry is centered around Hollywood, California . Other regional centers exist in many parts of the world, such as Mumbai -centered Bollywood ,

1125-421: A day or two to formulate their opinions. Despite this, critics have an important impact on the audience response and attendance at films, especially those of certain genres . Mass marketed action , horror , and comedy films tend not to be greatly affected by a critic's overall judgment of a film. The plot summary and description of a film and the assessment of the director's and screenwriters' work that makes up

1250-540: A few decades before it was successfully combined with a method to record series of sequential images in real-time. In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge eventually managed to take a series of photographs of a running horse with a battery of cameras in a line along the track and published the results as The Horse in Motion on cabinet cards . Muybridge, as well as Étienne-Jules Marey , Ottomar Anschütz and many others, would create many more chronophotography studies. Muybridge had

1375-551: A flashing soda can during a screening). These fields may further create derivative fields, such as a movie review section in a newspaper or a television guide. Sub-industries can spin off from film, such as popcorn makers, and film-related toys (e.g., Star Wars figures ). Sub-industries of pre-existing industries may deal specifically with film, such as product placement and other advertising within films. The terminology used for describing motion pictures varies considerably between British and American English . In British usage,

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1500-606: A look I had never seen before." Authorities in Washington invoked a municipal ordinance that would have prevented any minors from seeing the film, threatening theater owners with arrest if they did. Meacham insinuated that the board had succumbed to pressure from Warner Brothers, which had spent $ 10 million, more than twice its original budget, making the film; an X rating would have seriously limited The Exorcist ' s commercial prospects. New Yorker critic Pauline Kael echoed his criticism. "If The Exorcist had cost under

1625-537: A million or been made abroad," she wrote, "it would almost certainly be an X film. But when a movie is as expensive as this one, the [board] doesn't dare give it an X." In 1974, Richard Heffner took over as president of the board. During his interview process, he had asked to screen recent films that had sparked ratings controversies, including The Exorcist . "How could anything be worse than this?" he recalled thinking later. "And it got an R?" After he took over as head, he would spearhead efforts to be more aggressive with

1750-764: A more dynamic and engaging experience for the viewer. The development of scene construction through mise-en-scène , editing, and special effects led to more sophisticated techniques that can be compared to those utilized in opera and ballet. The French New Wave movement of the late 1950s and 1960s also embraced the montage technique, with filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut using montage to create distinctive and innovative films. This approach continues to be influential in contemporary cinema, with directors employing montage to create memorable sequences in their films. In contemporary cinema, montage continues to play an essential role in shaping narratives and creating emotional resonance. Filmmakers have adapted

1875-425: A new section or sequence within a film. This technique can be used to convey a narrative or to create an emotional or intellectual effect by juxtaposing different shots, often for the purpose of condensing time, space, or information. Montage can involve flashbacks , parallel action, or the interplay of various visual elements to enhance the storytelling or create symbolic meaning . The concept of montage emerged in

2000-715: A news article: "I think it distorts and ruptures the intent of this voluntary film ratings system. All R-rated films are not alike." John Fithian, the president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, also said that the cards can be harmful. He noted in a news article for the Christian Science Monitor that the R rating is "broad enough to include relatively family-friendly fare such as Billy Elliot and Erin Brockovich (which were both rated R for language) along with films that push

2125-546: A portion of the film exclusively reserved for it, and was not projected. Contemporary films are usually fully digital through the entire process of production, distribution, and exhibition. The name "film" originally referred to the thin layer of photochemical emulsion on the celluloid strip that used to be the actual medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion-picture, including "picture", "picture show", "moving picture", "photoplay", and "flick". The most common term in

2250-466: A projection before 1882. He then further developed the device into the Théâtre Optique which could project longer sequences with separate backgrounds, patented in 1888. He created several movies for the machine by painting images on hundreds of gelatin plates that were mounted into cardboard frames and attached to a cloth band. From 28 October 1892 to March 1900 Reynaud gave over 12,800 shows to

2375-525: A rape, some strong sexual content, nudity and language." By the early 2000s, the MPAA began applying rating explanations for PG, PG-13, and NC-17-rated films as well. Depictions of violence are permitted under all ratings but must be moderated for the lower ones. Violence must be kept to a minimum in G-rated films and must not be intense in PG-rated films. Depictions of intense violence are permitted under

2500-562: A relationship between the content in the separate shots in the minds of the viewer. It is this relationship that makes all film storytelling possible. In a simple example, if a person is shown looking out a window, whatever the next shot shows, it will be regarded as the view the person was seeing.) Each scene was a single stationary shot with the action occurring before it. The scenes were later broken up into multiple shots photographed from different distances and angles. Other techniques such as camera movement were developed as effective ways to tell

2625-526: A source of profit almost as soon as the process was invented. Upon seeing how successful their new invention, and its product, was in their native France, the Lumières quickly set about touring the Continent to exhibit the first films privately to royalty and publicly to the masses. In each country, they would normally add new, local scenes to their catalogue and, quickly enough, found local entrepreneurs in

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2750-415: A stopgap measure. To accommodate "the irresistible force of creators determined to make 'their films' " , and to avoid "the possible intrusion of government into the movie arena", he developed a set of advisory ratings which could be applied after a film was completed. On November 1, 1968, the voluntary MPAA film rating system took effect, with three organizations serving as its monitoring and guiding groups:

2875-415: A story with film. Until sound film became commercially practical in the late 1920s, motion pictures were a purely visual art , but these innovative silent films had gained a hold on the public imagination. Rather than leave audiences with only the noise of the projector as an accompaniment, theater owners hired a pianist or organist or, in large urban theaters, a full orchestra to play music that fit

3000-403: A strip of chemically sensitized celluloid ( photographic film stock ), usually at a rate of 24 frames per second. The images are transmitted through a movie projector at the same rate as they were recorded, with a Geneva drive ensuring that each frame remains still during its short projection time. A rotating shutter causes stroboscopic intervals of darkness, but the viewer does not notice

3125-687: A time through "peep show" devices such as the Electrotachyscope , Kinetoscope and the Mutoscope . Not much later, exhibitors managed to project films on large screens for theatre audiences. The first public screenings of films at which admission was charged were made in 1895 by the American Woodville Latham and his sons, using films produced by their Eidoloscope company, by the Skladanowsky brothers and by

3250-531: A total of circa 7,000 paying customers came to view a 1.5-hour show of some 40 scenes at a 300-seat hall in the old Reichstag building in Berlin. Émile Reynaud already mentioned the possibility of projecting the images of the Praxinoscope in his 1877 patent application. He presented a praxinoscope projection device at the Société française de photographie on 4 June 1880, but did not market his praxinoscope

3375-516: A total of over 500,000 visitors at the Musée Grévin in Paris. By the end of the 1880s, the introduction of lengths of celluloid photographic film and the invention of motion picture cameras , which could photograph a rapid sequence of images using only one lens, allowed action to be captured and stored on a single compact reel of film. Movies were initially shown publicly to one person at

3500-474: A valid fine art . André Bazin reacted against this theory by arguing that film's artistic essence lay in its ability to mechanically reproduce reality, not in its differences from reality, and this gave rise to realist theory . More recent analysis spurred by Jacques Lacan 's psychoanalysis and Ferdinand de Saussure 's semiotics among other things has given rise to psychoanalytic film theory , structuralist film theory , feminist film theory , and others. On

3625-557: A version with less profanity was finally given a PG-13 rating. The same, however, could not be said about the 1995 teen drama Kids , which director Larry Clark wanted rated R so parents could take their kids to it for educational purposes, but the MPAA rated it NC-17 due to its content of teen sex and turned down Clark's appeal. The film was then released unrated by Miramax (under Shining Excalibur Films because Miramax, formerly owned by Disney , hesitated to release it as an NC-17 film). Motion picture A film , also known as

3750-572: Is Bad Education (2004), an NC-17 foreign-language film that grossed $ 5.2 million in the United States theatrically (a moderate success for a foreign-language film). In 2000, the Directors Guild of America called the NC-17 rating an "abject failure", for causing filmmakers to re-edit films to receive an R rating, rather than accept an NC-17 rating. They argued that this was "not only compromising filmmakers' visions, but also greatly increasing

3875-448: Is Boxoffice ; between 2001 and 2007, they also published In Focus . As the motion picture industry became larger, movie production companies began consolidating and controlling distribution. The largest producer, Famous Players–Lasky , joined and later merged with the largest distributor, Paramount (eventually becoming Paramount Pictures ), and together they began block-booking in 1917, forcing theaters to buy mediocre films to get

Motion Picture Association film rating system - Misplaced Pages Continue

4000-618: Is a voluntary scheme that is not enforced by law; films can be exhibited without a rating, although most theaters refuse to exhibit non-rated or NC-17 rated films . Non-members of the MPA may also submit films for rating. Other media, such as television programs , music and video games , are rated by other entities such as the TV Parental Guidelines , the RIAA and the ESRB , respectively. In effect as of November 1968, following

4125-559: Is echoed by other critics, including David Ansen , as well as many filmmakers. Moreover, Ebert argued that the rating system is geared toward looking at trivial aspects of the film (such as the number of times a profane word is used) rather than at the general theme of the film (for example, if the film realistically depicts the consequences of sex and violence). He called for an A (adults only) rating, to indicate films high in violence or mature content that should not be marketed to teenagers, but do not have NC-17 levels of sex. He also called for

4250-411: Is having a shot that zooms in on the forehead of an actor with an expression of silent reflection that cuts to a shot of a younger actor who vaguely resembles the first actor, indicating that the first person is remembering a past self, an edit of compositions that causes a time transition. Montage is a film editing technique in which separate pieces of film are selected, edited, and assembled to create

4375-414: Is restricted to PG-13 and above. An example of an otherwise PG film being assigned a PG-13 rating for a drug reference (momentary, along with brief language) is Whale Rider . The film contained only mild profanity, but was rated PG-13 because of a scene where drug paraphernalia were briefly visible. Critic Roger Ebert criticized the MPAA for the rating and called it "a wild overreaction". In May 2007,

4500-446: Is the greatest director , the one who invented a new language , true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream." An example of the language is a sequence of back and forth images of one speaking actor's left profile, followed by another speaking actor's right profile, then a repetition of this, which is a language understood by the audience to indicate a conversation. This describes another theory of film,

4625-460: The 180-degree rule , as a visual story-telling device with an ability to place a viewer in a context of being psychologically present through the use of visual composition and editing. The " Hollywood style " includes this narrative theory, due to the overwhelming practice of the rule by movie studios based in Hollywood, California, during film's classical era. Another example of cinematic language

4750-1407: The COVID-19 pandemic . ShoWest Convention 1976 ShoWest Convention 1978 ShoWest Convention 1979 ShoWest Convention 1981 ShoWest Convention 1982 ShoWest Convention 1983 ShoWest Convention 1984 ShoWest Convention 1985 ShoWest Convention 1986 ShoWest Convention 1987 ShoWest Convention 1988 ShoWest Convention 1989 ShoWest Convention 1990 ShoWest Convention 1991 ShoWest Convention 1992 ShoWest Convention 1993 ShoWest Convention 1994 ShoWest Convention 1995 ShoWest Convention 1996 ShoWest Convention 1997 ShoWest Convention 1998 ShoWest Convention 1999 ShoWest Convention 2000 ShoWest Convention 2001 ShoWest Convention 2002 ShoWest Convention 2003 ShoWest Convention 2004 ShoWest Convention 2005 ShoWest Convention 2006 ShoWest Convention 2007 ShoWest Convention 2008 ShoWest Convention 2009 ShoWest Convention 2010 ShoWest Convention 2011 ShoWest Convention 2014 The remaining Nielsen Media event properties include CineEurope held in Barcelona , Spain in June, CineAsia held in early December in varying locations throughout Southeast Asia, and ShowEast, held in late October or early November in

4875-545: The French New Wave , New German Cinema wave, Indian New Wave , Japanese New Wave , New Hollywood , and Egyptian New Wave ) and the rise of film-school-educated independent filmmakers contributed to the changes the medium experienced in the latter half of the 20th century. Digital technology has been the driving force for change throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. Digital 3D projection largely replaced earlier problem-prone 3D film systems and has become popular in

5000-545: The Hays Code of the classical Hollywood cinema era, the MPA rating system is one of various motion picture rating systems that are used to help parents decide what films are appropriate for their children . It is administered by the Classification & Ratings Administration (CARA), an independent division of the MPA. The MPA film ratings are as follows: In 2013, the MPA ratings were visually redesigned, with

5125-802: The Indian film industry's Hindi cinema which produces the largest number of films in the world. Though the expense involved in making films has led cinema production to concentrate under the auspices of movie studios , recent advances in affordable film making equipment have allowed independent film productions to flourish. Profit is a key force in the industry, due to the costly and risky nature of filmmaking; many films have large cost overruns , an example being Kevin Costner 's Waterworld . Yet many filmmakers strive to create works of lasting social significance. The Academy Awards (also known as "the Oscars") are

Motion Picture Association film rating system - Misplaced Pages Continue

5250-532: The X rating , and was distributed by their Claridge Pictures subsidiary. Two other films were rated X by the time the MPAA published their first weekly bulletin listing ratings: Paramount 's Sin With a Stranger and Universal 's Birds in Peru . Both films were subsequently released by subsidiaries. The ratings used from 1968 to 1970 were: This content classification system originally was to have three ratings, with

5375-622: The "Hays Code" by invoking the First Amendment . Valenti cited examples such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , which used prohibited language including "hump the hostess", and Blowup , which was denied Code approval due to nudity, resulting in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , then a member studio of the MPAA, releasing it through a subsidiary. Valenti revised the Code to include the "SMA" (Suggested for Mature Audiences) advisory as

5500-438: The 1840s and commercial success since the early 1850s, raised interest in completing the photographic medium with the addition of means to capture colour and motion. In 1849, Joseph Plateau published about the idea to combine his invention of the phénakisticope with the stereoscope, as suggested to him by stereoscope inventor Charles Wheatstone , and to use photographs of plaster sculptures in different positions to be animated in

5625-427: The 1890s. Photography was introduced in 1839, but initially photographic emulsions needed such long exposures that the recording of moving subjects seemed impossible. At least as early as 1844, photographic series of subjects posed in different positions were created to either suggest a motion sequence or document a range of different viewing angles. The advent of stereoscopic photography, with early experiments in

5750-432: The 1920s, with pioneering Soviet filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein and Lev Kuleshov developing the theory of montage. Eisenstein's film Battleship Potemkin (1925) is a prime example of the innovative use of montage, where he employed complex juxtapositions of images to create a visceral impact on the audience. As the art of montage evolved, filmmakers began incorporating musical and visual counterpoint to create

5875-548: The 1948 Paramount decision, many formerly-affiliated theaters ended up joining either TOA or Allied. During the post-war period, theater revenue collapsed as television became widespread, even as film rental became more expensive, and thousands of theaters closed, particularly in city centers hard hit by suburban flight . Finally, in 1966 TOA and Allied merged into the National Association of Theatre Owners, largely based on TOA's structure but headed by Marshall Fine, former Allied chairman. The 1970s were difficult for NATO; although

6000-476: The 1980s, complaints about violence and gore in films such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins , both of which received PG ratings, refocused attention on films seen by younger children. According to author Filipa Antunes, this revealed the conundrum of a film that "could not be recommended for all children but could also not be repudiated for all children uniformly," leading to speculation that

6125-686: The 2000s is so intense, well-coordinated and well financed that reviewers cannot prevent a poorly written or filmed blockbuster from attaining market success. However, the cataclysmic failure of some heavily promoted films which were harshly reviewed, as well as the unexpected success of critically praised independent films indicates that extreme critical reactions can have considerable influence. Other observers note that positive film reviews have been shown to spark interest in little-known films. Conversely, there have been several films in which film companies have so little confidence that they refuse to give reviewers an advanced viewing to avoid widespread panning of

6250-508: The Dolby A noise reduction system, which became a standard in the recording industry and eliminated the hissing sound associated with earlier standardization efforts. Dolby Stereo , a revolutionary surround sound system, followed and allowed cinema designers to take acoustics into consideration when designing theaters. This innovation enabled audiences in smaller venues to enjoy comparable audio experiences to those in larger city theaters. Today,

6375-586: The MPA logo, and links to MPA websites along the bottom. Jack Valenti , who had become president of the Motion Picture Association of America in May 1966, deemed the Motion Picture Production Code , which had been in place since 1930 and rigorously enforced since July 1, 1934, out of date and bearing "the odious smell of censorship ". Filmmakers were pushing at the boundaries of the code with some even going as far as filing lawsuits against

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6500-403: The MPAA announced that depictions of cigarette smoking would be considered in a film's rating. Anti-smoking advocates stated that the child-friendly PG rating was inappropriate for the 2011 Nickelodeon -animated film Rango , which included over 60 depictions of characters smoking. Nudity is restricted to PG and above, and anything that constitutes more than brief nudity will require at least

6625-612: The MPAA controversially decided to give the film Blue Valentine an NC-17 rating. The Weinstein Company challenged this decision, and the MPAA ended up awarding the same cut an R rating on appeal. Actor Ryan Gosling , who stars in the film, noted that NC-17 films are not allowed wide advertisement and that, given the refusal of major cinema chains like AMC and Regal to show NC-17 rated movies, many such films will never be accessible to people who live in markets that do not have art house theatres. Legal scholar Julie Hilden wrote that

6750-885: The MPAA has a "masterpiece exception" that it has made for films that would ordinarily earn an NC-17 rating, if not for the broader artistic masterpiece that requires the violence depicted as a part of its message. She cites Saving Private Ryan , with its bloody depiction of the D-Day landings , as an example. This exception is troubling, Hilden argues, because it ignores context and perspective in evaluating other films and favors conventional films over edgier films that contribute newer and more interesting points to public discourse about violence. Starting in 2004, GKC Theatres (since absorbed into AMC Theatres ) introduced "R Cards", which parents could obtain for their children under 17 to see R-rated films without adult accompaniment. The cards generated much controversy; MPAA president Jack Valenti said in

6875-415: The MPAA's own website, further mentioning a bias against homosexual content compared to heterosexual content, particularly with regards to sex scenes. Filmmaker Darren Stein further insists that his tame teen comedy G.B.F. , which features multiple same-sex kisses but no intercourse, strong language, violence, or nudity, was "rated R for being gay." The 2011 documentary Bully received an R rating for

7000-555: The MPAA, the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), and the International Film Importers & Distributors of America (IFIDA). Only films that premiered in the United States after that date were affected by this. Walter Reade was the only one of 75 top U.S. exhibitors who refused to use the ratings. Warner Bros.-Seven Arts ' The Girl on a Motorcycle was the first film to receive

7125-409: The NC-17 rating to be removed and to have the X rating revived. He felt that everyone understood what X-rated means, while fewer people understood what NC-17 meant. MPAA chairman Dan Glickman has disputed these claims, stating that far more films are initially rated NC-17 for violence than for sex, but that these are later edited by studios to receive an R rating. Despite this, an internal critic of

7250-578: The PG-13 rating, but violence that is both realistic and extreme or persistent will generally require at least an R rating. Snippets of language that go "beyond polite conversation" are permitted in G-rated films, but no stronger words are present. Profanity may be present in PG rated films, and use of one of the harsher "sexually-derived words" as an expletive will initially incur at least a PG-13 rating. More than one occurrence will usually incur an R rating as will

7375-458: The United States is "movie", while in Europe , "film" is preferred. Archaic terms include "animated pictures" and "animated photography". "Flick" is, in general a slang term, first recorded in 1926. It originates in the verb flicker, owing to the flickering appearance of early films. Common terms for the field, in general, include "the big screen", "the movies", "the silver screen", and "cinema";

7500-433: The United States which indicate how closely the trailer adheres to the MPA's (and prior to November 2019, the MPAA's) standards. The MPA also creates blue feature tags for theatrical and home media use. Theatrical releases show the blue tag after the film, with home media releases showing it prior to the film. They feature the rating block and any content descriptors as assigned by the Classification and Rating Administration,

7625-402: The United States, movie is the predominant term for the medium. Although the words film and movie are sometimes used interchangeably, film is more often used when considering artistic , theoretical , or technical aspects. The term movies more often refers to entertainment or commercial aspects, as where to go for fun evening on a date. For example, a book titled How to Understand

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7750-498: The United States, and later released both the original NC-17 and the cut R-rated version on DVD. A Fox Searchlight spokesman said the NC-17 rating did not give them much trouble in releasing this film (they had no problem booking it, and only the Salt Lake City newspaper Deseret News refused to take the film's ad), and Fox Searchlight was satisfied with this film's United States box office result. Another notable exception

7875-551: The X rating, especially over violence in films. In 1976, he got the board to give the Japanese martial arts film The Street Fighter an X rating for its graphic violence, the first time a film had earned that rating purely for violence. The NC-17 rating has been described as a "kiss of death" for any film that receives it. Like the X rating it replaced, NC-17 limits a film's prospects of being marketed, screened in theaters and sold in major video outlets. In 1995, MGM/UA released

8000-479: The affiliated network, using this access to coerce independents into selling out. In 1921, the first predecessor of NATO was founded, the largely affiliated Motion Picture Theater Owners of America (MPTOA), soon followed by the independent Allied States Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors (Allied), Unaffiliated Independent Motion Picture Exhibitors of America, National Independent Theatre Exhibitors, and more, to demand better pricing and access to first-runs. Unlike

8125-527: The backside of home video releases. Film rating content descriptors are exclusively used for films rated from PG to NC-17; they are not used for G-rated films because the content in them is suitable for all audiences even if containing mild objectionable content. If a film has not been submitted for a rating or is an uncut version of a film that was submitted, the labels Not Rated ( NR ) or Unrated ( UR ) are often used. Uncut/extended versions of films that are labeled "Unrated" also contain warnings saying that

8250-493: The big-budget film Showgirls ; it became the most widely distributed film with an NC-17 rating (showing in 1,388 cinemas simultaneously), but it was a box office failure that grossed only 45% of its $ 45 million budget. Some modest successes can be found among NC-17 theatrical releases, however; Fox Searchlight Pictures released the original NC-17-rated American edition of the European film The Dreamers (2003) in theaters in

8375-430: The blockbuster The Godfather revitalized theater-going and revenue, in 1975 a new National Independent Theatre Exhibitors (NITE) came together to challenge NATO, eventually numbering almost a thousand theaters, and governance reforms were pushed by members as well. When the reforms stalled, the entire California and Illinois chapters pulled out in 1977, along with many small chains around the nation. After 1980, many of

8500-479: The chronophotography works of Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey . In 1886, Anschütz developed the Electrotachyscope , an early device that displayed short motion picture loops with 24 glass plate photographs on a 1.5 meter wide rotating wheel that was hand-cranked to a speed of circa 30 frames per second. Different versions were shown at many international exhibitions, fairs, conventions, and arcades from 1887 until at least 1894. Starting in 1891, some 152 examples of

8625-552: The combined device. In 1852, Jules Duboscq patented such an instrument as the "Stéréoscope-fantascope, ou Bïoscope", but he only marketed it very briefly, without success. One Bïoscope disc with stereoscopic photographs of a machine is in the Plateau collection of Ghent University, but no instruments or other discs have yet been found. By the late 1850s the first examples of instantaneous photography came about and provided hope that motion photography would soon be possible, but it took

8750-403: The contours of dozens of his chronophotographic series traced onto glass discs and projected them with his zoopraxiscope in his lectures from 1880 to 1895. Anschütz made his first instantaneous photographs in 1881. He developed a portable camera that allowed shutter speeds as short as 1/1000 of a second in 1882. The quality of his pictures was generally regarded as much higher than that of

8875-644: The convention is NATO's only official convention of theater owners controlled by the organization itself. The first gathering took place in March 2011 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas , Nevada , with the second held April 23–26, 2012, at the same venue. CinemaCon is now a stand-alone movie theater industry trade show or exposition originally established by NATO in 1975 , usually held in Las Vegas in March. On March 11, 2020, NATO canceled CinemaCon 2020 due to

9000-593: The early 2010s. " Film theory " seeks to develop concise and systematic concepts that apply to the study of film as art . The concept of film as an art-form began in 1911 with Ricciotto Canudo 's manifest The Birth of the Sixth Art . The Moscow Film School , the oldest film school in the world, was founded in 1919, in order to teach about and research film theory. Formalist film theory , led by Rudolf Arnheim , Béla Balázs , and Siegfried Kracauer , emphasized how film differed from reality and thus could be considered

9125-401: The early workings of the ratings system is film critic and writer Stephen Farber, who was a CARA intern for six months during 1969 and 1970. In The Movie Ratings Game , he documents a prejudice against sex in relation to violence. The 2006 documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated also points out that four times as many films received an NC-17 rating for sex as they did for violence according to

9250-548: The end of the decade, consolidation left the top 10 owners in control of 55 percent of the industry. In the 1990s, theater growth exploded, and by 1999, movie screens peaked at 36,448, the vast majority of which were affiliated with NATO. As ShoWest, the convention was formerly one of four major worldwide annual events owned by the Film Group unit of Nielsen Business Media before being sold in 2011 to e5 Global Media and operated exclusively by NATO. Renamed CinemaCon in 2011,

9375-450: The extremes of violence, including Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill ". The film rating system has had a number of high-profile critics. Film critic Roger Ebert called for replacing the NC-17 rating with separate ratings for pornographic and non-pornographic adult film. Ebert argued that the system places too much emphasis on sex, while allowing the portrayal of massive amounts of gruesome violence. The uneven emphasis on sex versus violence

9500-601: The film on appeal, despite the British Board of Film Classification reducing the British rating from a 15 rating to a 12A on the grounds that the uses of the expletive were not directed at anyone. This was satirized in the 2005 film Be Cool , in which the film producer Chili Palmer ( John Travolta ) says: "Do you know that unless you're willing to use the R rating, you can only say the 'F' word once? You know what I say? Fuck that. I'm done." Often film producers will use

9625-526: The film. Among those patrons were many children, not always accompanied by adults. This left many commentators incredulous that the ratings board would have found that a film with disturbing scenes such as a possessed 12-year-old girl masturbating with a crucifix was acceptable for children to see. Roy Meacham, a Washington, D.C., critic who had praised the film while admonishing parents not to take their children to it, recalled those children he did see leaving showings "drained and drawn afterward; their eyes had

9750-792: The film. However, this usually backfires, as reviewers are wise to the tactic and warn the public that the film may not be worth seeing and the films often do poorly as a result. Journalist film critics are sometimes called film reviewers. Critics who take a more academic approach to films, through publishing in film journals and writing books about films using film theory or film studies approaches, study how film and filming techniques work, and what effect they have on people. Rather than having their reviews published in newspapers or appearing on television, their articles are published in scholarly journals or up-market magazines. They also tend to be affiliated with colleges or universities as professors or instructors. The making and showing of motion pictures became

9875-410: The future of sound in film remains uncertain, with potential influences from artificial intelligence , remastered audio, and personal viewing experiences shaping its development. However, it is clear that the evolution of sound in cinema has been marked by continuous innovation and a desire to create more immersive and engaging experiences for audiences. A significant technological advancement in film

10000-522: The future of the cinema industry, and Hollywood employment has become less reliable, particularly for medium and low-budget films. Derivative academic fields of study may both interact with and develop independently of filmmaking, as in film theory and analysis. Fields of academic study have been created that are derivative or dependent on the existence of film, such as film criticism , film history , divisions of film propaganda in authoritarian governments, or psychological on subliminal effects (e.g., of

10125-402: The good ones. Theaters banded together to bargain for better pricing, with 26 of the largest combining into First National Exhibitors Circuit —which went on to become a producer and distributor in its own right, before being bought by Warner Bros. By 1921, Paramount already owned 300 theaters, and other producers were catching up. Studios soon contracted with each other to keep first-runs inside

10250-493: The innovative work of D. W. Griffith in The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916). However, in the 1920s, European filmmakers such as Eisenstein , F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang , in many ways inspired by the meteoric wartime progress of film through Griffith, along with the contributions of Charles Chaplin , Buster Keaton and others, quickly caught up with American film-making and continued to further advance

10375-440: The intention of allowing parents to take their children to any film they chose. However, the National Association of Theatre Owners urged the creation of an adults-only category, fearful of possible legal problems in local jurisdictions. The "X" rating was not an MPAA trademark and would not receive the MPAA seal; any producer not submitting a film for MPAA rating could self-apply the "X" rating (or any other symbol or description that

10500-432: The interruptions due to flicker fusion . The apparent motion on the screen is the result of the fact that the visual sense cannot discern the individual images at high speeds, so the impressions of the images blend with the dark intervals and are thus linked together to produce the illusion of one moving image. An analogous optical soundtrack (a graphic recording of the spoken words, music, and other sounds ) runs along

10625-452: The last of these is commonly used, as an overarching term, in scholarly texts and critical essays. In the early years, the word "sheet" was sometimes used instead of "screen". The art of film has drawn on several earlier traditions in fields such as oral storytelling , literature , theatre and visual arts . Forms of art and entertainment that had already featured moving or projected images include: The stroboscopic animation principle

10750-433: The likelihood that adult-oriented movies are seen by the very groups for which they are not intended." As of March 2007, according to Variety , MPAA chairman Dan Glickman had been made aware of the attempts to introduce a new rating, or find ways to reduce the stigma of the NC-17 rating. Film studios have pressured the MPAA to retire the NC-17 rating, because of its likely impact on their film's box office revenue. In 2010,

10875-461: The majority of most film reviews can still have an important impact on whether people decide to see a film. For prestige films such as most dramas and art films , the influence of reviews is important. Poor reviews from leading critics at major papers and magazines will often reduce audience interest and attendance. The impact of a reviewer on a given film's box office performance is a matter of debate. Some observers claim that movie marketing in

11000-405: The medium. In the 1920s, the development of electronic sound recording technologies made it practical to incorporate a soundtrack of speech, music and sound effects synchronized with the action on the screen. The resulting sound films were initially distinguished from the usual silent "moving pictures" or "movies" by calling them "talking pictures" or "talkies." The revolution they wrought

11125-436: The minimum age for NC-17-rated films was raised to 18, by rewording it to "No One 17 and Under Admitted". The ratings used since 1996 are: Since September 1990, the MPAA has included explanations, or "descriptors", of why each film received an "R" rating, allowing parents to know what type of content the film contained. For example, the descriptor for The Girl Who Played with Fire read "Rated [R] for brutal violence including

11250-401: The mood of the film at any given moment. By the early 1920s, most films came with a prepared list of sheet music to be used for this purpose, and complete film scores were composed for major productions. The rise of European cinema was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I , while the film industry in the United States flourished with the rise of Hollywood , typified most prominently by

11375-440: The most prominent film awards in the United States, providing recognition each year to films, based on their artistic merits. There is also a large industry for educational and instructional films made in lieu of or in addition to lectures and texts. Revenue in the industry is sometimes volatile due to the reliance on blockbuster films released in movie theaters . The rise of alternative home entertainment has raised questions about

11500-477: The name of the medium is film . The word movie is understood but seldom used. Additionally, the pictures (plural) is used somewhat frequently to refer to the place where movies are exhibited; in American English this may be called the movies , but that term is becoming outdated. In other countries, the place where movies are exhibited may be called a cinema or movie theatre . By contrast, in

11625-542: The non-trademarked "X" rating, and it soon became synonymous with pornography in American culture. In late 1989 and early 1990, respectively, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover , two critically acclaimed art films featuring strong adult content, were released. Neither film was approved for an MPAA rating, limiting their commercial distribution and prompting criticism of

11750-436: The number of films made in color gradually increased year after year. In the early 1950s, the proliferation of black-and-white television started seriously depressing North American theater attendance. In an attempt to lure audiences back into theaters, bigger screens were installed, widescreen processes, polarized 3D projection , and stereophonic sound were introduced, and more films were made in color, which soon became

11875-454: The other hand, critics from the analytical philosophy tradition, influenced by Wittgenstein , try to clarify misconceptions used in theoretical studies and produce analysis of a film's vocabulary and its link to a form of life . Film is considered to have its own language . James Monaco wrote a classic text on film theory, titled "How to Read a Film," that addresses this. Director Ingmar Bergman famously said, " Andrei Tarkovsky for me

12000-587: The others, the MPTOA embraced affiliated theaters, and soon became the largest organization. During World War II , many theaters joined the new War Activities Committee, after the war becoming the Theatre Activities Committee and soon American Theatre Association (ATA), which strongly supported United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. , the antitrust case against all of the major studios. A plan to merge with MPTOA, which strongly supported

12125-416: The packaging of MPAA-rated films via a settlement that would come into effect by fall that year. The ratings used from 1984 to 1990 were: In 1989, Tennessee state law set the minimum age to view a theatrically exhibited R-rated film without adult accompaniment at 18, instead of 17, and categorized the admission of minors to X-rated films as a misdemeanor . The statute remained in force until 2013, when it

12250-416: The profanity contained within the film, which prevented most of the intended audience, middle and high schoolers , from seeing the film. The film's director, Lee Hirsch, has refused to recut the film, stating, "I feel a responsibility as a filmmaker, as the person entrusted to tell (these kids') stories, to not water them down." A petition collected more than 200,000 signatures to change the film's rating and

12375-451: The rating displayed on a left panel and the name of the rating shown above it. A larger panel on the right provides a more detailed description of the film's content and an explanation of the rating level is placed on a horizontal bar at the bottom of the rating. Film ratings often have accompanying brief descriptions of the specifics behind the film's content and why it received a certain rating. They are displayed in trailers, posters, and on

12500-586: The rating system's PG classification "no longer matched a notion of childhood most parents in America could agree on." Steven Spielberg , director of Temple of Doom and executive producer of Gremlins , suggested a new intermediate rating between "PG" and "R". The "PG-13" rating was introduced on July 1, 1984, with the advisory "Parents Are Strongly Cautioned to Give Special Guidance for Attendance of Children Under 13 – Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Young Children". The first film to be released with this rating

12625-576: The rating system's lack of a designation for such films. In September 1990, the MPAA introduced the rating NC-17 ("No Children Under 17 Admitted"). Henry & June , previously to be assigned an X rating, was the first film to receive the NC-17 rating instead. Although films with an NC-17 rating had more mainstream distribution opportunities than X-rated films, many theaters refused to screen them, most entertainment media did not accept advertising for them, and many large video outlets refused to stock them. The ratings used from 1990 to 1996 were: In 1996,

12750-457: The release of The Exorcist at the end of 1973, CARA president Aaron Stern took the unusual step of calling director William Friedkin to tell him that since it was an "important film", it would be rated R and could be released without any cuts. The film drew huge crowds upon its release, many of whom were so horrified by the film they vomited and/or fainted; a psychiatric journal would later document four cases of "cinematic neurosis " induced by

12875-470: The requested reforms were finally implemented, including a full-time president and a full-time lobbyist in Washington, as well as moving its headquarters from New York to Los Angeles; by the end of the decade, NITE had folded back into NATO, leaving only one dominant organization. The 1980s saw a relaxation of antitrust regulation and subsequent purchasing of many chains by distributors and large conglomerates, including 120 theaters by Paramount and Warner; by

13000-523: The rule rather than the exception. Some important mainstream Hollywood films were still being made in black-and-white as late as the mid-1960s, but they marked the end of an era. Color television receivers had been available in the US since the mid-1950s, but at first, they were very expensive and few broadcasts were in color. During the 1960s, prices gradually came down, color broadcasts became common, and sales boomed. The overwhelming public verdict in favor of color

13125-465: The rule that can most often be successfully appealed. The ratings board may award a PG-13 rating passed by a two-thirds majority if they believe the language is justified by the context or by the manner in which the words are used. It is sometimes claimed that films rated PG-13 are only able to use the expletive fuck once to avoid an R rating for language. There are several exceptional cases in which PG-13-rated films contain multiple occurrences of

13250-492: The same dreams and hurts, then it deserves to be called great. — Roger Ebert (1986) Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films. In general, these works can be divided into two categories: academic criticism by film scholars and journalistic film criticism that appears regularly in newspapers and other media. Film critics working for newspapers, magazines , and broadcast media mainly review new releases. Normally they only see any given film once and have only

13375-510: The street, and the view from the front of a trolley as it traveled a city's Main Street. According to legend, when a film showed a locomotive at high speed approaching the audience, the audience panicked and ran from the theater. Around the turn of the 20th century, films started stringing several scenes together to tell a story. (The filmmakers who first put several shots or scenes discovered that, when one shot follows another, that act establishes

13500-449: The studios, ran into friction, with many affiliated theaters leaving the ATA over its stance; conversely Allied, the largest purely-independent group, refused to join over the presence of affiliates. The merger went ahead in 1947, minus affiliates of Loews, RKO, and Warner Bros., and they became the Theater Owners of America (TOA) with about 10,000 theaters. After divestiture in the fallout of

13625-445: The television threat emerged in the 1940s and 1950s, the film industry needed to innovate to attract audiences. In terms of sound technology, this meant the development of surround sound and more sophisticated audio systems, such as Cinerama's seven-channel system. However, these advances required a large number of personnel to operate the equipment and maintain the sound experience in theaters. In 1966, Dolby Laboratories introduced

13750-416: The three instances of fuck in the musical to qualify it as PG-13 under MPAA guidelines. A study of popular American teen-oriented films rated PG and PG-13 from 1980 to 2006 found that in those films, teenaged characters use more and stronger profanity than adult ones in the same movies. However, the study found that the overall amount of such language had declined somewhat since the 1980s. Drug use content

13875-451: The traditional montage technique to suit the evolving aesthetics and storytelling styles of modern cinema. As the medium of film continues to evolve, montage remains an integral aspect of visual storytelling, with filmmakers finding new and innovative ways to employ this powerful technique. If a movie can illuminate the lives of other people who share this planet with us and show us not only how different they are but, how even so, they share

14000-421: The uncut version of the film contains content that differs from the theatrical release and might not be suitable for minors. If a film has not yet been assigned a final rating, the label This Film Is Not Yet Rated is used in trailers and television commercials. The MPA also rates film trailers, print advertising, posters, and other media used to promote a film. Rating cards appear at the head of trailers in

14125-464: The usage of such an expletive in a sexual context. Known as the "automatic language rule", the rule has been applied differently depending on the subject matter of the film. For example, All the President's Men (1976) received a PG rating after appealing it from an R, despite multiple instances of strong language, likely because of its historic subject matter. The automatic language rule is arguably

14250-564: The various countries of Europe to buy their equipment and photograph, export, import, and screen additional product commercially. The Oberammergau Passion Play of 1898 was the first commercial motion picture ever produced. Other pictures soon followed, and motion pictures became a separate industry that overshadowed the vaudeville world. Dedicated theaters and companies formed specifically to produce and distribute films, while motion picture actors became major celebrities and commanded huge fees for their performances. By 1917 Charlie Chaplin had

14375-529: The word fuck : Adventures in Babysitting , where the word is used twice in the same scene; Antwone Fisher which has three uses; Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour , which has four uses (six in the "Taylor's Version" cut); The Hip Hop Project , which has seventeen uses; and Gunner Palace , a documentary of soldiers in the Iraq War , which has 42 uses of the word with two used sexually. Both Bully ,

14500-416: The word for a scene of gravitas or humor and then bleep out any further instances with sound effects. Some forms of media are cut post-release so as to obtain a PG-13 rating for home media release or to feature on an Internet streaming service that will not carry films rated higher than PG-13. In 2020, a recording of Hamilton was released on Disney+ after cuts by Lin-Manuel Miranda to remove two of

14625-420: The – arguably better known – French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière with ten of their own productions. Private screenings had preceded these by several months, with Latham's slightly predating the otherss'. The earliest films were simply one static shot that showed an event or action with no editing or other cinematic techniques . Typical films showed employees leaving a factory gate, people walking in

14750-488: Was clear. After the final flurry of black-and-white films had been released in mid-decade, all Hollywood studio productions were filmed in color, with the usual exceptions made only at the insistence of "star" filmmakers such as Peter Bogdanovich and Martin Scorsese . The decades following the decline of the studio system in the 1960s saw changes in the production and style of film. Various New Wave movements (including

14875-549: Was introduced in 1833 with the stroboscopic disc (better known as the phénakisticope ) and later applied in the zoetrope (since 1866), the flip book (since 1868), and the praxinoscope (since 1877), before it became the basic principle for cinematography. Experiments with early phénakisticope-based animation projectors were made at least as early as 1843 and publicly screened in 1847. Jules Duboscq marketed phénakisticope projection systems in France from c.  1853 until

15000-494: Was not an MPAA trademark). In 1970, the ages for "R" and "X" were raised from 16 to 17. Also, due to confusion over whether "M"-rated films were suitable for children, "M" was renamed to "GP" (for General audiences, Parental guidance suggested), and in 1971, the MPAA added the content advisory "Some material not generally suitable for pre-teenagers". On February 11, 1972, "GP" was revised to "PG". The ratings used from 1970 to 1972 were: The ratings used from 1972 to 1984 were: In

15125-453: Was ruled to be in violation of the First Amendment . The law was amended in 2013 as to prohibit persons under the age of 18 only if the film was considered "harmful to minors". In the rating system's early years, "X"-rated films such as Midnight Cowboy (1969) and A Clockwork Orange (1971) were understood to be unsuitable for children, but non-pornographic and intended for the general public. However, pornographic films often self-applied

15250-947: Was swift. By 1930, silent film was practically extinct in the US and already being referred to as "the old medium." The evolution of sound in cinema began with the idea of combining moving images with existing phonograph sound technology. Early sound-film systems, such as Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope and the Vitaphone used by Warner Bros ., laid the groundwork for synchronized sound in film. The Vitaphone system, produced alongside Bell Telephone Company and Western Electric , faced initial resistance due to expensive equipping costs, but sound in cinema gained acceptance with movies like Don Juan (1926) and The Jazz Singer (1927). American film studios, while Europe standardized on Tobis-Klangfilm and Tri-Ergon systems. This new technology allowed for greater fluidity in film, giving rise to more complex and epic movies like King Kong (1933). As

15375-544: Was the John Milius war film Red Dawn . In 1985, the wording was simplified to "Parents Strongly Cautioned – Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Children Under 13". Around the same time, the MPAA won a trademark infringement lawsuit against the producers and distributors of I Spit on Your Grave over a fraudulent application of its R rating to the uncut version of the film, and forced its member studios and several other home video distributors to put MPAA ratings on

15500-458: Was the introduction of "natural color," where color was captured directly from nature through photography, as opposed to being manually added to black-and-white prints using techniques like hand-coloring or stencil-coloring. Early color processes often produced colors that appeared far from "natural". Unlike the rapid transition from silent films to sound films, color's replacement of black-and-white happened more gradually. The crucial innovation

15625-485: Was the three-strip version of the Technicolor process, first used in animated cartoons in 1932. The process was later applied to live-action short films, specific sequences in feature films, and finally, for an entire feature film, Becky Sharp, in 1935. Although the process was expensive, the positive public response, as evidenced by increased box office revenue, generally justified the additional cost. Consequently,

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