Mondo Knows Facts
The NC-17 rating replaced X in 1990
The change aimed to separate serious adult films from pornography Because the X certificate was never trademarked, pornographic distributors adopted it and the label lost any link to mainstream cinema. In 1990 the rating board introduced NC-17, meaning no one under 17 admitted, and registered it as a trademark. The new label was meant to let adult dramas be reviewed as films rather than dismissed. It sits in Mondo's movies & tv collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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More facts like this
A voluntary ratings system replaced the Code in 1968Jack Valenti introduced the G, M, R and X categories to guide parentsThe British film censor dates from 1912Local councils still hold the legal power over cinema admissionsShowing drug dealing sympathetically was off limitsThe Code required crime to be punished and never shown as attractiveThe Production Code policed Hollywood for three decadesFrom 1934 studios needed a seal of approval before a film could be releasedA Hays Office seal decided what cinemas could bookFilms without approval struggled to find screens in the 1930sThe Production Code listed what could not be shownIts rules covered crime, sex, religion and even the appearance of evil
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Tags: ratings, 1990, censorship
The NC-17 rating replaced X in 1990: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The change aimed to separate serious adult films from pornography. The figure is taken from Motion Picture Association, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a movies & tv fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Movies & TV shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
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- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.