PG-13, Ratings Creep, and the Legacy of Screen Violence: The MPAA Responds to the FTC’s “Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children” (2000–2009)

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.