What does NC-17 mean?
NC-17 means “No Children 17 and Under Admitted”. NC-17 is a film rating issued by the Motion Picture Association indicating that the film’s content is appropriate only for adults 18 and older. — one under 17 admitted regardless of parental accompaniment. The NC-17 rating replaced the X rating in 1990 and was intended to provide a legitimate category for adult-oriented films that did not constitute pornography. In practice, the rating has been commercially damaging — many theater chains and retailers have policies against carrying NC-17 rated films.
Example:The director fought to preserve the film’s NC-17 rating rather than making the cuts required for an R, arguing that the edited version compromised the artistic integrity of the work — a decision that limited the film’s commercial distribution but maintained its critical reception.
Example: The entertainment attorney explained that NC-17 ratings were relevant to child performers only in the sense that productions seeking this rating would not cast minors in any content — the rating category by definition excluded content appropriate for or involving children.
Did you know?
The NC-17 rating’s commercial toxicity reflects an interesting paradox — an R rating is commercially viable and widely distributed, while an NC-17 for only marginally more explicit content can be commercially devastating. Films like Showgirls (1995) that released with NC-17 ratings faced significant distribution challenges, while essentially equivalent content in R-rated films faced no such obstacles.
