Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: R-Rating movie policy?

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Posted by Paul Goulet (Member # 297) on 02-09-2000, 11:50 AM:

Hi, I hope this isnt too far off of the usual FILM-TECH topics, But I was wondering what everyones R-Rating Movie Policy is. Also, Does anyone know what the N.A.T.O policy is? Thanks!

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Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 02-09-2000, 01:15 PM:

As an independent theatre owner, we decided to join NATO California. We specifically choose not to belong to the MPAA as we show many Not Rated films and Films that are rated by other film boards in other countries.

We need the freedom to show NC-17 films as well as (perhaps) the occasional X-Rated film like John Holms in 3-D. If you are a member of the MPAA you must enforce the rating policy as if it were law and you may not show an X-Rated film.

The ratings aren’t law in spite of what a few irate adults have yelled at me over the years. They are rules, made by an organization to set universal rules for an industry and to prevent many local communities from enacting such laws. Had the MPAA not come along, we would have 400 “blue” laws that varied from town to town; and you could get arrested for showing Robo Cop.

So now that we are not a member of the MPAA, we use the ratings as a common sense guideline and not the 5-commandments carved in the sacred tablets. If the film is primarily sexual in nature or has a bunch of four letter words, (Camp is a four letter word) we don't get too wound up about the young-uns sneaking in. If it is violent or especially violent in the context of sex, then I might tell the children that it is inappropriate to view and to wait until they are a bit older.

This is just a reflection of my moral values and shouldn't be considered a guideline for anybody but me. Ultimately it is the parents responsibility to police their children and to set limits to their behavior and activities. I'd much rather have them experience it on my big screen than to have them experience it on themselves.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 02-09-2000, 01:24 PM:

When I worked for United Artists, the employees were most vigilant to enforce the R rating policy. I believe that it was because of the measure of power that they could hold over people who were slightly younger than they were. I never saw them adhere to any other theatre rule with such dedication and devotion.

Lincoln said, "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-09-2000, 02:43 PM:

Alternatively: "Power corrupts; absolute power is even more fun!"

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 02-09-2000, 04:26 PM:

I only enforce the R Rating on certain occasions:

1. If the movie is especially brutal, such as the Messenger.

2. If the movie contains excessive sexual content that doesnt go anywhere.

3. If the little jerks give me trouble.

4. If they wear glasses.

5. If they wear plaid.

6. If it's friday the 12th.

7. If I find more grey hair on my head.

8. If I find more grey hair in my nose.

I am more than willing to bend the rules if:

1. They pay me under the table.

2. They pay me over the table.

3. They buy me a table.

4. They buy me chicken.

5. They beat up that guy that keeps eating my chicken.

In other words, I am not too strict, just if I think that they personally would get warped by watching it, and in this state (UTAH), most people here would get warped by Lawrence of Arabia.

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"If it's not worth doing, I have allready been there and done it"

Posted by Chris Erwin (Member # 176) on 02-09-2000, 05:41 PM:

I'm still miffed by the whole under 17 thing. If it's South Park or American Pie,I see,but a universial blanket "rule" of 17,ID,or no show is sometimes a bad thing. Especially when the same kid you turn away walks away from the theater just to go rent it at the local video rental later. Lost cash,and if the kid gets embarassed or harrassed by the help, might not come back ever.

That's my take.
--Chris

P.S. Parents shouldn't just "drop" their kids off at the theater for a babysitter. If they do,we should have to take their place.

Posted by Tom Ferreira (Member # 70) on 02-09-2000, 09:03 PM:

The official home office policy is that under 17 must have their tickets purchased by a parent or 'responsible adult'. When I took over management of my theater two years ago, only a parent was acceptable. I left that policy in place, along with the positive ID required rule. I also recently implemented a new rule that under 12 must be accompanied by a parent who must be seated with them in the theatre.
This whole ratings enforcement dilemma has polarized management and employees in other situations that I've heard of. Since ours has been in place for a while, the kids expect it and most have IDs in hand when approaching the box office. There is one thing that doesn't work, in my opinion, and that's having a double standard at work. If you're going to enforce your policy for 8MM and South Park, you also have to enforce it for Deuce Bigalow and Scream 3. If you don't, it could lead to trouble. Half the time, Mommy will come in to buy the tickets for the 13 year olds just to get rid of them for an hour and a half, or in the case of The Green Mile, three hours and nine minutes. This also leads to another problem, which I call the Revolving Door. Punk Kid gets bored with the film after a half hour, and is in and out, in and out, disturbing people who are actually interested in the film that they paid to see. I think the ratings system sucks big time, and doesn't work anymore. There is too much of a range in the content of PG13 and R films, but I do believe that most R Rated films are intended for viewing by adults. I'm no prude, but I am a parent, and I would not be too thrilled if my 14 year old son was able to walk up to a box office and purchase a ticket to, say, Natural Born Killers. Maybe I just care too much.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-09-2000, 10:26 PM:

You know, even though I am pretty casual about kids watching R-Rated movies I think it's best to stick to the policy. Furthermore, I think it may be a wise move to take it one further and say nobody under 17 allowed into a R-movie after 6/7 pm even WITH an adult. A lot of theatres in larger cities do that. I know some of the Cinemarks in Cleveland do. (Since I'm 6-ft / 250-lb I was put on patrol for that kind of thing once.)

It's just too much of a hassle putting up with kids running around and disturbing all of the other paying customers. Besides, people shouldn't expect us to baby sit their young-uns! If they think it's okay for their kids to watch South Park, etc. THEY should have to go in with them and be responsible for thier OWN damn kids.

I remember back in the old days... My dad took us kids to see Alien (1). He put the money down on the box office counter and said to the cashier, "I give my kids permission to watch this movie. If they misbehave even once, you toss them out!" He then turned to us and said, "If I come back here and find that they threw you out I'll tan your hides, but good!" The girl gave us our tix, we bought our popcorn and sat down. We didn't even get up to go to the bathroom! We knew that the ol' man MEANT IT!... Today parents expect to drop the young-uns off and forget about them. Generally speaking, kids don't have the sense of discipline that they used to and parents don't have the sense of responsibility that they used to. It's not worth it anymore to try and be "nice" and relax the policy! If you do people will walk all over you!

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 02-09-2000, 10:44 PM:

I ran a midnight show of "The Crow 2" when it was out. A couple brought their kid- he couldn't have been more than 3 or 4. He was afraid of the movie and would go out to the lobby, but he was afraid to be out in the lobby by himself, and would go back in. He was crying, but the parents didn't care, and actually told him to shutup.

Just you wait: In another 10-15 years, we'll have another screwed up young adult, and everyone will be wondering how he got that way.

Posted by Andy Davis (Member # 262) on 02-10-2000, 03:27 PM:

Last year, a box office cashier at my theatre sold a 14 year-old tickets to an R-rated movie and the next day, a front-page article appeared in the newspaper about it. The kid saw it and never showed up for work the next day (we were gonna fire him anyways). Supposedly the journalist had previously been denied a student discount because he forgot his ID and he had a score to settle.

Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 02-10-2000, 10:12 PM:

To add to Ian's comments, here's a little ratings related story we encountered last week.

3 young girls came into the building and carefully studied the box office sign listing movies, times and ratings. Then they went back outside. Then one returned to study the sign some more. Soon they all returned and purchased tickets to "Edge of Seventeen" an unrated film. For those of you who don't know the film it is a coming-of-age, coming-out story set in Sandusky Ohio in 1984. It contains a couple of very frank gay male sexual encounters. The funny thing about this story is that the film we think the girls wanted to see was Girl Interrupted, which is rated R. We found it amusing that they innocently chose the most adult film on our screens to sneak around the R rating (which they assumed we would enforce). Guess the showtimes for Mansfield Park which is PG-13 were too far off. Needless to say, I hope they enjoyed whichever movie they saw. Which just goes to prove that rated or unrated doesn't mean much.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 02-11-2000, 01:54 AM:

Or the story my theatre manager girlfriend had told me of a few strange occurrences that happened during the run of 'When The Cat's Away' (an 'unrated' French film that features a rather explicit gay sex scene obscured only be a sheer bedsheet hung across a room) at her theatre:

1. A woman brings her young children and tries to buy tickets to WTCA. After being told that this film was not suitable for children she replied, "isnt this an animated Disney film?' I bet she was confusing WTCA with 'Cats Don't Dance' (which of course was not a Disney film either)...

2. Another woman brings her early-teenage daughter for WTCA. Again the warning about the content was given. the reason that this woman brought her daughter to this film is it was in French (with subtitles of course) and her daughter wanted to try and listen to the film in French as a way to practice her French at school! (AFAIK, it was the only French-language film playing in the area at the time)

Or the time that someone called the theatres message system after hours to complain that they had observed two 13-year old girls in 'Boogie Nights' and started calling the film 'PORN' and was threatening to call the city council and the authorities to get the theatre shut down for allowing 13 year olds ( Which if I remember correctly were allowed to see the film by their parents (who bought the tickets) and were in their best behavior in the theatre) to see this 'PORN' movie... She played the tape back to me over the phone and we both got a good laugh, so much so that we sent copy of it to the district managers office (he too got a chuckle out of it)... Some people just don't know how to relax I guess...

Or the Rocky Horror Picture Show we did in October where there were a few 5-10 year olds in attejndance, no live cast but myself and some former live cast members were supplying the lines for the show as it was eerily dead for a RHPS... Then the small group of very upset disgruntled patrons that came out and ripped the manager a new one about these 'degenerates' in the theatre yelling 'foul obscenities' througout the film (most of which were lines right out of the AP script) and thanked us as a group for ruining a perfectly good movie(!)

sheesh...

I'll stop rambling now...

Aaron

Posted by Bryan Redemske (Member # 354) on 02-17-2000, 02:58 PM:

for us, we pretty much follow the rule. ours is that under 17 can go if there is a parent in there with them. just buying the ticket isn't good enough. after telling a couple hundred inbred rednecks that no, they can't just leave billy bob and bobby sue there and come pick them up later, it gets a little old. but that's the rule, i guess.

but for some reason it's really fun to find the little shavers and toss them out on the sidewalk....

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 02-29-2000, 03:27 PM:

Hey, Dave Williams, I also live in Utah. Any chance I could take a tour of your booth (so long as you live in the general Salt Lake or Davis or Weber County area)? Which theatre are you working for?

Posted by Reeve Byrne (Member # 295) on 02-29-2000, 03:58 PM:

I'm going to have to agree to Ian's comment about the employees feeling powerful. I know I like to card kids and throw them out because it's a power things plus it helps relive aggression.

On time I looked thru the port window and saw two 12-14 year old boys in Play It To The Bone. So I got my uniform on and went downstairs into the theater. Sat right next to them asked them for their ticket stubs. They were suposed to be in Sixth Sense. They then gave me a little bit of attitude, so I told them that what they were doing was against the law and that if they didn't go to their correct movie or leave than I was going to call security and have them call the cops, and have them prosicuted to the fullist extent of the law. Their mouths dropped and they ran out into the mall.
That was fun!

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"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most."

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-02-2001, 05:52 PM:

Aaron S: When the Cat's Away was rated R in the US.