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Back in the 1990s, I remember that most movies targeting children were rated G. Nowadays it seems that most children's movies are rated PG, with movies such as Frozen and Finding Dory rated PG.
Just as NC-17 is seen as taboo for film studios, are film studios now also trying to avoid the G rating by inserting minimal objectionable content? Perhaps many teens and adults nowadays don't want to see G-rated films based on the stigma that they are too babyish. Most G-rated movies nowadays are generally straight to DVD releases rather than theatrical releases.
It makes me wonder what the My Little Pony film coming out this October (not that I plan to see it despite my love for the color pink) will be rated. MLP is a TV series targeted towards young girls, however, has a strong following from teens and young adults, even men (known as "Bronies"). I wonder if the producers will go for a PG rating to accommodate these older fans. On IMDB it says the expected MPAA rating is PG for "thematic elements and mild action". Time will tell.
There has always (since this iteration of the ratings) been a bit of creep in the ratings to make a film more interesting to kids wanting to feel they are grown up.
PG is a wider audience. You dont see a lot of Rated R movies anymore either. Everything is either PG or PG-13. The Rated R movies are moving to Netflix Hulu Amazon now.
I was actually thinking that the criteria for G ratings were getting too "boring" (for lack of a better term) even for kids.
But then again, I suppose we could also say that we now know that kids are much more perceptive and resilient than they were in the past or maybe we understand that better...so they are seen as "mature enough" to see the PG stuff.
I don't know if the content has changed so much, I think it's more how they apply the ratings. Some of the older G-rated movies would never be rated G today; Snow White is one that comes to mind due to the scarier scenes.
It's interesting you bring this up. I remember for a while many years ago thinking PG movies were pretty rare. Part of that was due to PG-13 becoming a thing and movies that would have been PG before became PG-13.
I got curious so I went to Box Office Mojo to check out the top 200 highest domestic grossing movies that are rated G. For the sake of relativity, the lowest grossing movie on the list is an IMAX film that made $10 million. Sorting by year, only 5 movies on this list came out in the past 3 years. And not a single one in 2016. So I decided to compare the last 10 years with the 90s.
1990 - 3 movies
1991 - 3 movies
1992 - 4 movies
1993 - 2 movies
1994 - 3 movies
1995 - 7 movies
1996 - 5 movies
1997 - 3 movies
1998 - 6 movies
1999 - 7 movies
2007 - 4 movies
2008 - 10 movies
2009 - 7 movies
2010 - 4 movies
2011 - 8 movies
2012 - 3 movies
2013 - 1 movie
2014 - 3 movies
2015 - 2 movies
2016 - 0 movies
This is not adjusted for inflation either so it should be weighted more toward recent years. I think the main thing seen is the amount of money made by PG movies compared to G movies. Last year, no G rated movies made more than $10 million. But 9 PG rated movies made more than $100 million each, 4 of which made more than $300 million each. And a total of 14 movies topped the $100 million mark in 2014 and 2015 combined. Only 2 such G rated movies did that in that same time period. If PG movies are going to clean up so well at the box office, why not make those instead? The G vs PG thing doesn't seem to be keeping anyone away.
The big thing I noticed was a shift from movies aimed at adults that were rated PG to movies aimed at kids rated PG. In the early 90s there were PG rated movies like The Hunt for Red October, Father of the Bride, Sleepless in Seattle, A League of Their Own, Maverick, Apollo 13, Sister Act, Phenomenon. The most recent movie on the list rated PG aimed squarely at adults was... maybe Heaven Is For Real in 2014, though that's still considered a family movie. Before that you have to go all the way back to Life of Pi in 2012. Maybe that's part of the ratings creep that another poster mentioned. Kids movies have graduated from G to PG and adult movies have grown from PG to PG-13.
Remember, this was looking at the top 200 domestic grossing movies in each rating category, not necessarily the number of movies with that rating that came out in a year.
Studios are still making LOTS of G-rated movies. Output hasn't changed, but the venue has. They all go directly to DVD or TV now, simply because younger kids have 17 cartoon channels to choose from that show content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So parents no longer pay to take kids to the theaters.
Theaters in the movies are now marketed solely toward teenagers, with some adult fare thrown in for Oscar consideration. But the bulk of movies going into theaters are geared toward teens, because they are the only ones reliably going to the movies on a regular basis. We adults stay home and watch better stuff on cable and the Internet.
Note that that the new Power Rangers movie by Lionsgate coming out this March has been rated PG-13. Apparently they are trying to go after fans of the original series who are now all grown up.
Again, time will tell what the new My Little Pony movie coming out this October will be rated.
I think it is more to appeal to the adults taking the kids. THEY want at least some minimal level of entertainment themselves and since they're the ones paying, they are certainly considered in the content of the movie.
If the movie studios can strike a balance between something adults can STAND to see and what parents are WILLING to let their kids see then they can have a blockbuster hit.
Also, parents know kids are exposed to more in school and on TV so they allow their kids to see more mature content in movies than in the past.
Studios are still making LOTS of G-rated movies. Output hasn't changed, but the venue has. They all go directly to DVD or TV now, simply because younger kids have 17 cartoon channels to choose from that show content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So parents no longer pay to take kids to the theaters.
Theaters in the movies are now marketed solely toward teenagers, with some adult fare thrown in for Oscar consideration. But the bulk of movies going into theaters are geared toward teens, because they are the only ones reliably going to the movies on a regular basis. We adults stay home and watch better stuff on cable and the Internet.
Overall, that still holds. Lately though I've been seeing a shift to follow the teens of the past few years as they age into adulthood.
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