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PG-13, Ratings Creep, and the Legacy of Screen Violence: The MPAA Responds to the FTC’s “Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children” (2000–2009)
- Cinema Journal
- University of Texas Press
- Volume 55, Number 3, Spring 2016
- pp. 40-64
- 10.1353/cj.2016.0024
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
The Federal Trade Commission’s investigation into Hollywood’s marketing of violent content to children spotlighted the Motion Picture Association of America’s self-regulatory Classification and Rating Administration (CARA). Yet the heightened scrutiny coincided with the decline of R-rated blockbusters and an increased level of violence in their PG-13 counterparts. To contextualize such “ratings creep,” this article demonstrates how one PG-13 franchise employs stylistic methods originally developed to satisfy Production Code requirements, including coded, substituted, and displaced violence. Using The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a case study on film violence, ratings creep, and the economics of film ratings, the article examines how Hollywood marshals legitimized means to deliver screen violence to underage groups.