Now, according to MPAA spokeswoman Joan Graves in a Variety article, the MPAA now has a “new look at what it means to be R-rated”. “[We're] taking steps to correct some of those issues. For instance, the MPAA plans to revisit its stance on horror pics, which have evolved considerably from spooky frights to torture porn. I do think the R has a very big envelope for that genre.”

We all know that studio’s love the horror genre for the fan base and the money they can potentially bring in, but they hate the issues with the MPAA, an organization that hates sex, gay sex, and violence. So reconsidering the R-rating will do what to the horror genre? Hurt it, help it?

Thoughts?

Source: Arrow

Deadline reports why: “The rating was given for a scene in which the characters played by Gosling and Williams try to save their crumbling marriage by spending a night away in a hotel. They get drunk and their problems intensify when he wants to have sex and she doesn’t, but will to get him off her back. It is an upsetting scene that makes you squirm, but is an honest one that establishes clearly that this couple has nothing left and isn’t going to make it because love has turned into contempt. There is barely any nudity in the scene, as I recall (though I haven’t seen it since last January) and there is no violence.”

As a by product of that rating, heads will turn come December 31st, but does anyone seen the hoopla about this film and why it got the rating? Anyone see Piranha 3D or Red, White, & Blue? God help us if A Serbian Film gets distribution in the US (insert sick laugh).

The rating is apparently set for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity, says JoBlo. Shutter Island is the story of two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who are summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island’s fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane.

The upcoming Paramount Pictures thriller also stars the talents of Ben Kingsley, Jackie Earle Haley and Michelle Williams. Expect this once pushed back puppy to come out in theaters on February 19th.

While I’ve heard of studios recutting movies to a PG-13 rating for certain markets, taking a Tarantino movie from a hard R to a G? Sounds as good as American Psycho edited for tv.

* – it’s sort of new. It’s a revision of the 70′s  Italian movie of the same name. But spelled correctly.

Source: Box Office Mojo

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This process began back in 1989 when the Peter Greenaway film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover was the first film ever to receive the NC-17 label after the MPAA originally gave the film an X rating, but due to a large outcry over the films artistic integrity the new rating was created with approval from then  president Jack Valenti.

Now, with most theatre chains out right refusing to show NC-17 films in their theatres for fear of public outcry, and the fact that they will not earn enough money, many studios now market their films with a ‘Hard R’ rating.  The fake moniker has not been approved or denied by the MPAA and is just swept under the rug as its films contain scenes which under normal circumstances would be given an NC-17 rating.

Truth be told those films slapped with the NC-17 rating have historically not made that much money– as seen below–  but what you got to wonder is that those films mentioned are all mainly independent films and some films of ‘lesser quality’.

Following grosses taken from box office mojo

From the past 17 years only 19 films were released in theatres under the NC-17 rating. Compare that to the number of films released each ear.   According to the most recent data from the  MPAA,  2007 saw 603 films released in the U.S theatrically.

Some films that were originally given the NC-17 rating and then  changed to an R or a Hard R include:

The Godfather part III

Boys Don’t Cry

Last Tango in Paris

Requiem for a Dream ( I think we all know for what scene)

Pulp Fiction

The Wild Bunch- This 1969 film also holds the distinction for being originally an R rated film when it was shown in theatres and released on video then in 1993 when the film was gearing up for a re-release in theatres the film was then rated NC-17.

Of these few films mentioned all share on common element.  They are all Oscar nominated films.  Now of course the Oscars are by no means the end all as to what a great movie is, but it does certainly add questions as to whether quality films can earn respect with the NC-17 label.  Either way with only 19 films released in the past 17 years there certainly is room for more films to come whether or not the films earns huge dollars at the box office.