X rating

How to read it

X was one of the four ratings the MPA announced in November 1968, with G, M and R, and meant no one under 17 admitted, an age that varied in some places. The MPA had at first planned only G, M and R and left it to parents whether to take their children to adult films. Theater owners feared lawsuits from parents under state or local laws and wanted the right to keep children out of particular films, so the National Association of Theatre Owners pressed for an adults-only category, and X was added. The MPA registered the other rating symbols as trademarks, but not the X. X-rated films of the time included Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange, which the MPA’s history describes as highly regarded and even Oscar-nominated.

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Why “X-rated” came to mean pornography

Because X was not a trademark, anyone could put it on a film without going to the rating board. A New York court said in 1990, in a case Miramax brought against the MPA, that the exception “has been to permit those who characterize themselves as pornographers to appropriate the ‘X’ rating for their own purposes. ‘X rated’ is now synonymous with pornography.” The court found that for a film not meant for that market, an X was a stigma that limited its advertising, distribution and income.

Replaced by NC-17

The MPA replaced X with NC-17 in 1990. Its own history gives the reason as the pornography industry’s use of X to brand its products; the Federal Trade Commission’s history adds the criticism that an X had become “a kiss of death” at the box office, and the court’s condemnation that same year. The new rating is a registered certification mark: under the MPA’s rules today, its rating symbols may not be self-applied and may be used only on films the board has rated.

X today

FilmRatings.com’s rating search still lists X, with GP, M and M/PG, as an obsolete rating. Of the 65 films listed as NC-17 in 2000, ten had been rated X before NC-17 took effect.