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Movie Ratings Click Quiz #1

What ratings were these movies given in the U.S. upon their original release?

 HOVER OR TAP HERE FOR RATING EXPLANATIONS 

 G..........  All admitted. Suitable for all ages.
 PG........ All admitted but some material may be unsuitable for younger children.
 PG-13... All admitted but some material may be unsuitable for under-13s. (Created July 1984)
 R...........  Under-17s require an accompanying adult. Contains some mature material.
 NC-17... Adults only. No one 17 and under admitted. (Previously X, rare for mainstream film)

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Quiz by overtired
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Last updated: November 24, 2023
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First submittedAugust 10, 2023
Times taken18,953
Average score52.0%
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33 Comments
+2
Level 85
Aug 15, 2023
+4
Level 78
Aug 10, 2023
Nice quiz. Missed Barbie plus a couple old movies where I thought the rating organization might be a bunch of pearl clutchers.
+3
Level 85
Aug 11, 2023
Yeah, sometimes older ratings actually seem surprisingly lenient. I've tried to go for easier to guess ones, but it can be tricky, especially the further back you go.
+13
Level 80
Aug 16, 2023
There are a couple reasons older ratings seem surprisingly lenient. First off, the "PG-13" rating didn't exist until mid 1984, so before that, some movies, particularly action and thriller movies that weren't considered hard enough for an "R" were simply given a "PG". Whereas after that, those types of movies got the "PG-13" that was basically designed for that type of film. But in the years after that change was made, perceptions about the "G" rating became that it was pretty much just for films aimed at young children, not the "general audiences" it proclaimed, and that adults and even older children might lose interest based on the rating. Subsequently, unless a film really was intended primarily for young children, studios would often ensure that movies directed towards general audiences, even if the movie was pretty mild overall, had at least one scene or event or line of dialogue that just barely pushed the supposed "limit", and would ensure a "PG" rating.
+4
Level 60
Aug 11, 2023
Nice quiz but tricky for a Brit. We have U, PG, 12, 15 and 18 as ratings but they don't necessarily correspond to the US equivalents.
+5
Level 85
Aug 11, 2023
Yep, I'm a Brit myself. I put the rating explanations at the top partly for this reason.

The biggest difference seems to be that in the UK it's more based on hard limits - no one under the age limit for 12, 15 and 18 rated films is allowed in. But in the US the PG-13 rating is just a suggestion, an under-17 can watch a Restricted movie with an adult, and NC-17 Adults Only movies are very rare, whereas movies rated 18 aren't uncommon in the UK (though more common in the past before studios started watering everything down to increase audience sizes).

Terminator was an 18 in the UK on release for example, so adults only. Terminator 2 was a 15. In the US they were both R, so a young person (whether 6 or 16) could see them, but only if an adult accompanied them.

(Americans, do correct me if I'm getting anything wrong here!)

+4
Level 74
Aug 16, 2023
Nah, it's about right. We mainly just stare at and silently judge people who bring little kids to R movies... oh wait, you said Americans not specifically Midwesterners.

Something something It's a Free Country, Don't Tell Me How to Raise my Kids.

Kids do at least need to find an adult willing to take them to an R movie knowing they'll be judged, so in practice *most* kids won't see an R movie (in theaters) until sometime in their teens at least.

+1
Level 68
Aug 17, 2023
It's nuts to me that parental consent isn't enough to view a movie.
+2
Level 85
Aug 11, 2023
Surprised about "The Evil Dead". I wonder about the process by which they edited it down to show on OTA TV.
+3
Level 85
Aug 11, 2023
Not sure, but in the UK it got caught up in a moral panic about "video nasties" and was outright banned on home video for many years.
+2
Level 69
Aug 12, 2023
19/25
+1
Level 85
Aug 12, 2023
Same here
+3
Level 71
Aug 12, 2023
Let me just say, I've never heard of Chicken Run, and I wouldn't have expected it to be a G-rated movie based on that intense looking title card. Great quiz though!
+8
Level 85
Aug 12, 2023
Yeah, was surprised the guesses were low for that, then I realised what the title card looks like! It's a cute animated film by the Wallace and Gromit people about chickens escaping their egg farm... but the joke is it's based on WW2 POW escape films like The Great Escape. It was actually more successful than the Wallace and Gromit film so I thought it'd be better known. The sequel is coming out this year.
+1
Level 61
Aug 17, 2023
I was guessing PG.
+2
Level 68
Aug 16, 2023
In the UK, Jurassic Park is PG
+2
Level 70
Aug 16, 2023
how come Barbie is PG-13 ? there's hardly any violence, nudity nor even strong language
+2
Level 67
Aug 16, 2023
I haven’t seen it, but if there’s any violence or nudity, it’s usually going to be PG-13.
+5
Level 78
Aug 16, 2023
No nudity, or anything other than very mild violence. Officially, the PG-13 rating is for "brief language" and "suggestive references."
+3
Level 70
Aug 18, 2023
Lmao what, there's more innuendo in PG The Mask than in Barbie
+1
Level 76
Aug 16, 2023
Lots of innuendos.
+2
Level 67
Aug 17, 2023
This feels INSANE. The BBFC gave it a 12 too, citing "brief sexual harassment" as one of the reasons.

I feel like it's a great film for young people to see idk...

+1
Level 68
Aug 17, 2023
I think it's one way production companies market movies. Say they're targeting 13-16 year olds- they may be more likely to see a "cool" PG13 movie than something "boring" rated a G/PG.

I doubt it's hard to shoot an extra couple versions of a scene with profanity added/removed. Or CGI blood etc.

+2
Level 76
Aug 16, 2023
Titanic has a tiddy in it tho?
+1
Level 78
Aug 16, 2023
Breasts are allowed in PG-13 movies, as long as they're shown in a non-sexual context.
+2
Level 61
Aug 17, 2023
The hovering on the description is super cool. Just a very well-formatted quiz in general!
+1
Level 85
Aug 17, 2023
Thanks, glad you liked it :)
+1
Level 68
Aug 18, 2023
A similar quiz might include older movies, with the long-gone ratings of M and GP! That would make for some tricky items.
+1
Level 75
Aug 21, 2023
That was tricky, I'll treasure my 1 point :)
+1
Level 72
Sep 29, 2023
Amazed by the difference with France. In France all those movies are "all public" except the 2 NC-17 and 3 R-rated that are 12+.
+1
Level 85
Sep 29, 2023
Well, everything other than the NC-17 and R films is also "all public" in the US, just with some parental recommendations. So only a real difference in the R rated ones.
+1
Level 83
Nov 24, 2023
Mask is actually rated PG-13.
+1
Level 85
Nov 24, 2023
Thanks, must've read the wrong rating. It was PG in the UK. Have swapped it.