How the MPAA Works

The ratings system established by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is ubiquitous in American entertainment, although few moviegoers understand how those ratings are assigned or enforced. The first thing to understand is that movie ratings are voluntary. Filmmakers are not required to submit their movies to the MPAA for a rating. In fact, they pay a fee for the service: $25,000 for the biggest-budget pictures down to $750 for a short [source: MPAA]. What filmmakers understand, however, is that most large American theater chains won't screen an unrated movie [source: Zeitchik]. So if you want to compete in the movie market, you need to have a rating.

Film ratings are assigned by the MPAA's Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA). The mission of CARA is not to censor films or pronounce a value judgment on whether a movie is "good" or "bad," but to provide parents with detailed information on the content of movies, particularly the existence of profanity, violence, sexual subject matter, nudity, drug use, and other material that might not be suitable for younger audiences.

When a film is submitted to CARA, it is viewed by members of an eight- to 13-person rating board, overseen by senior raters. CARA does not publically release the names of rating board members, but describes them as people unaffiliated with the movie industry who have children between the ages of 5 and 17 [source: MPAA]. Critics of the ratings board argue that the anonymity of board members frees them from accountability for their ratings decisions. If the board and its ratings process were more transparent, some filmmakers argue, then artists and the viewing public would have a greater voice in the process [source: Bowles].

The rating board members watch the films individually and then write on ballots what rating they think the majority of parents in the U.S. would give it. They then discuss it as a group and vote for a rating with a simple majority rule. A senior rater will provide the filmmaker or distributor with the rating and an explanation for it.

In addition to the letter rating, the rating board also writes a brief description of the movie's content that appears in all previews and advertisements. As an example, the PG-13 "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" included this description: "Intense Sequences of Adventure Violence, Including Frightening Images."

On the next page we'll discuss what each rating means and how ratings impact the industry.

When the Ratings Board of the MPAA Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA) votes on a film's rating, it must choose from the following five options:

A filmmaker can choose to accept the rating assigned by the MPAA, reject it, or edit his or her film to qualify for a different rating. In 2012, the anti-bullying documentary "Bully" initially received an R rating for profanity, prompting a huge outcry since the film was intended for a teen audience. "Bully's" producers briefly considered releasing it as unrated. Eventually, there was a compromise: The filmmakers cut out a few "f-bombs," and the MPAA awarded it a PG-13 rating [source: Sacks].

The MPAA also must approve all advertising for the films that carry its ratings [source: MPAA]. Still, the Federal Trade Commission has criticized both filmmakers and the MPAA for creating ad campaigns that market PG-13 and R-rated movies to young children [source: FTC].

Now let's look at the MPAA's other major focus: intellectual property theft.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is a trade organization created to advocate and fight for the interest of its members, the six major Hollywood movie studios:

The MPAA and its members consider movie piracy, particularly the sharing of illegal files on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, to be the biggest threat to the film industry. To fight piracy, the MPAA actively lobbies the U.S. and foreign governments to write and enforce stricter laws against intellectual property theft.

At first glance, the movie industry is hardly suffering economically. Annual revenue from theatrical ticket sales now tops $10 billion, but fewer people are going to the movies than a decade ago [source: Nash Information Services]. Studios increasingly rely on digital distribution -- online downloads, streaming and digital rentals -- to make up for flat ticket sales. If digital piracy is allowed to flourish, the MPAA believes that 2.4 million American jobs could be at risk [source: MPAA].

The MPAA has helped create anti-piracy laws to combat several forms of intellectual property theft:

The MPAA has been a vocal advocate for prosecuting both the owners and users of illegal file-sharing Web sites. In 2012, the MPAA filed an amicus brief (or "friend of the court" statement) supporting the Justice Department's piracy suit of Kim Dotcom, the owner and operator of MegaUpload, a "cloud storage" site that's allegedly a repository for pirated movies [source: McCullagh].

As a trade organization, one of the chief missions of the Motion Picture Organization of America (MPAA) is to lobby elected officials and government agencies on behalf of its members, the large movie studios. Jack Valenti, who served as president of the MPAA for 40 years, began his career as a close aide to President Lyndon Johnson and became a fixture in Washington, D.C. as Hollywood's "top lobbyist" [source: Breznican].

In 2010, the MPAA spent $1.66 million on federal lobbying, focusing its attention on the U.S. president, congressional leaders, and the Departments of Justice, Commerce and State, as well as the Patent and Trademark Office.

Anti-piracy has been a recurring theme of the MPAA's lobbying efforts. In the early 1980s, Jack Valenti famously railed against the VCR as a tool of movie pirates. Lucky for Valenti, his congressional testimony didn't sway legislators; VHS became a huge moneymaker for Hollywood [source: Barro].

The MPAA rallied behind its sister organization, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to fight against P2P file-sharing sites like Napster and Grokster and prosecute individual perpetrators. Thanks in part to MPAA lobbying, a provision was written into the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 stating that any college or university that accepts federal student financial aid must develop and implement a plan to combat illegal file-sharing on the school's computer network [source: MPAA].

In 2011 and early 2012, the MPAA fought a very public lobbying battle in support of two pieces of legislation aimed at curbing online piracy: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT-IP [source: O'Leary]. SOPA in particular drew widespread outcry from the Web community over charges that the law would allow copyright holders to block access to Web sites without a court order or even a cease and desist letter [source: Plumer]. On January 18, 2012, Web sites like Wikipedia, Craigslist, and Wordpress went "dark" in a massive online protest -- the world's largest -- against SOPA. Congress quickly dropped the legislation.

Since online piracy is a global epidemic, the MPAA has regional offices in five countries outside the U.S., and it partners with antipiracy organizations in more than 30 countries to lobby for tougher intellectual property protection worldwide [source: MPAA].

For lots more information on the movie industry and government lobbying, check out the related HowStuffWorks links on the next page.